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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 






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lUNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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ESSAYS 



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ESSAYS 



WRITTEN IN THE INTERVALS 



OF BUSINESS. 



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LONDON 
JOHN W. PARKER AND SON WEST STRAND 

1858 



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LONDOK: 
SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANBOS STREET, 
COVENT GARDEN, 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The Publishers beg to announce that, on 
account of the numerous applications which 
have been made for copies of the Essays 
written in the Intervals of Business, which 
have been for some time out of print, the 
Author has consented to the publication of 
another edition. 

October, 1858. 



THE FIRST PART. 

PAG 15 

ON PRACTICAL WISDOM 3 

AIDS TO CONTENTMENT * . . . 8 - 

ON SELF-DISCIPLINE 1 7 -s 

ON OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN .... 24 . 

ON THE EXERCISE OE BENEVOLENCE .... 34 

DOMESTIC RULE 42 

ADVICE 51 

SECRECY 58 v 



THE SECOND PART. 

ON THE EDUCATION OE A MAN OE BUSINESS . . 65 

ON THE TRANSACTION OE BUSINESS 74 

ON THE CHOICE AND MANAGEMENT OE AGENTS . 83 

ON THE TREATMENT OE SUITORS 88 

INTERVIEWS ....". 93 

OF COUNCILS, COMMISSIONS, AND, IN GENERAL, 
OF BODIES OF MEN CALLED TOGETHER TO 

COUNSEL, OR TO DIRECT 102 

PARTY-SPIRIT 1 10 



THE FIRST PART. 



H 



' And he that knows how little certainty there is in humane dis- 
courses, and how we know in part, and prophesie in part, and 
that of every thing whereof we know a little, we are ignorant in 
much more, must either be content with such proportion as the 
things will bear, or as himself can get, or else he must never seek 
to alter or to perswade any man to be of his opinion. For the 
greatest part of discourses that are in the whole world, is nothing 
but a heap of probable inducements, plausibilities, and witty enter- 
tainments : and the throng of notices is not unlike the accidents of 
a battel, in which every man tells a new tale, something that he 
saw, mingled with a great many things which he saw not ; his eyes 
and his fear joyning together equally in the instructions and the 
illusion, these make up the stories.' 

Jebemy Tayloe's Ductor Dubitantium. 



ON PRACTICAL WISDOM. 

PRACTICAL wisdom acts in the mind, as 
gravitation does in the material world : 
combining, keeping things in their places, and 
maintaining a mutual dependence amongst 
the various parts of our system. It is for 
ever reminding us where we are, and what 
we can do, not in fancy, but in real life. It 
does not permit us to wait for dainty duties, 
pleasant to the imagination; but insists upon 
our doing those which are before us. It is 
always inclined to make much of what it 
possesses : and is not given to ponder over 
those schemes which might have been carried 
on, if what is irrevocable had been other than 
it is. It does not suffer us to waste our 
energies in regret. In journeying with it we 
go towards the sun, and the shadow of our 
burden falls behind us. 

In bringing anything to completion the 
means which it looks for are not the shortest, 
nor the neatest, nor the best that can be ima- 

B 2 



4 ON PEACTICAL WISDOM. 

gined. They have however this advantage, 
that they happen to be within reach, 

"We are liable to make constant mistakes 
about the nature of practical wisdom, until 
we come to perceive that it consists not in 
any one predominant faculty or disposition, 
but rather in a certain harmony amongst all 
the faculties and affections of the man. Where 
this harmony exists, there are likely to be 
well -chosen ends, and means judiciously 
adapted. But, as it is, we see numerous 
instances of men who, with great abilities, 
accomplish nothing, and we are apt to vary 
our views of practical wisdom according to 
the particular failings of these men. Some- 
times we think it consists in having a definite 
purpose, and being constant to it. But take 
the case of a deeply selfish person : he will 
be constant enough to his purpose, and it 
will be a definite one. Very likely, too, it 
may not be founded upon unreasonable ex- 
pectations. The object which he has in view 
may be a small thing ; but being as close to 
his eyes as to his heart, there will be times 
when he can see nothing above it, or beyond 
it, or beside it. And so he may fail in practical 
wisdom. 



ON PRACTICAL WISDOM. 5 

Sometimes it is supposed that practical 
wisdom is not likely to be found amongst 
imaginative persons. And this is very true, 
if you mean by c imaginative persons' those 
who have an excess of imagination. For in 
the mind as in the body, general dwarfishness 
is often accompanied by a disproportionate 
size of some part. The large hands and feet 
of a dwarf seem to have devoured his stature. 
But if you mean that imagination, of itself, is 
something inconsistent with practical wisdom, 
I think you will find that your opinion is 
not founded on experience. On the contrary, 
I believe that there have been few men who 
have done great things in the world who have 
not had a large power of imagination. For 
imagination, if it be subject to reason, is its 
' slave of the lamp/ 

It is a common error to suppose that prac- 
tical wisdom is something Epicurean in its 
nature, which makes no difficulties, takes 
things as they come, is desirous of getting rid 
rather than of completing, and which, in short, 
is never troublesome. And from a fancy of 
this kind, many persons are considered specu- 
lative merely because they are of a searching 
nature; and are not satisfied with small ex- 
pedients, and such devices as serve to conceal 



6 ON PRACTICAL WISDOM. 

the ills they cannot cure. And if to be prac- 
tical is to do things in such a way as to leave 
a great deal for other people to undo at some 
future, and no very distant, period — then, 
certainly, these scrutinizing pains-taking sort 
of persons are not practical. For it is their 
nature to prefer a good open visible rent to 
a time-serving patch. I do not mean to say 
that they may not resort to patching as a 
means of delay. But they will not permit 
themselves to fancy that they have done a 
thing when they have only hit upon some 
expedient for putting off the doing. 

Bacon says, ' In this theatre of man's life, 
God and angels only should be lookers- on ; 
that contemplation and action ought ever to 
be united, a conjunction like unto that of the 
two highest planets, Saturn the planet of 
rest, and Jupiter the planet of action/ It is 
in this conjunction, which seems to Bacon so 
desirable, that practical wisdom delights; and 
on that account it is supposed by some men 
to have a tinge of baseness in it. They do 
not know that practical wisdom is as far from 
what they term expediency, as it is from 
impracticability itself. They see how much 
of compromise there is in all human affairs. 



ON PRACTICAL WISDOM. 7 

At the same time, they do not perceive that 
this compromise, which should be the nice 
limit between wilfulness and a desertion of 
the light that is within us, is the thing of all 
others which requires the diligent exercise of 
that uprightness which they fear to put in 
peril, and which, they persuade themselves, 
will be strengthened by inactivity. They 
fancy, too, that high moral resolves and great 
principles are not for daily use, and that there 
is no room for them in the affairs of this life. 
This is an extreme delusion. For how is the 
world ever made better ? not by mean little 
schemes which some men fondly call practical, 
not by setting one evil thing to counteract 
another, but by the introduction of those 
principles of action which are looked upon at 
first as theories, but which are at last acknow- 
ledged and acted upon as common truths. 
The men who first introduce these principles 
are practical men, though the practices which 
such principles create may not come into being 
in the life-time of their founders. 



AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 

THE first object of this Essay is to sug- 
gest some antidotes against the mani- 
fold ingenuity of self-tormenting. 

For instance, how much fretting might be 
prevented by a thorough conviction that there 
can be no such thing as unmixed good in this 
world ! In ignorance of this, how many a 
man, after having made a free choice in any 
matter, contrives to find innumerable causes 
for blaming his judgment ! Blue and green 
having been the only colours put before him, 
he is dissatisfied with himself because he 
omitted to choose pure white. Shenstone 
has worked out the whole process with 
fidelity. 'We are oftentimes in suspense 
betwixt the choice of different pursuits. 
We choose one at last doubtingly, and with 
an unconquered hankering after the other. 
We find the scheme, which we have chosen, 
answer our expectations but indifferently — 
most worldly projects will. We, therefore, 
repent of our choice, and immediately fancy 
happiness in the paths which we decline; 



AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 9 

and this heightens our uneasiness. We 
might at least escape the aggravation of it. 
It is not improbable, we had been more 
unhappy, but extremely probable, we had 
not been less so, had we made a different 
decision/ 

A great deal of discomfort arises from over- 
sensitiveness about what people may say of 
you, or your actions. This requires to be 
blunted. Consider whether anything that 
you can do will have much connexion with 
what they will say. And besides, it may be 
doubted whether they will say anything at all 
about you. Many unhappy persons seem to 
imagine that they are always in an amphi- 
theatre, with the assembled world as spec- 
tators ; whereas, all the while, they are play- 
ing to empty benches. They fancy, too, that 
they form the particular theme of every 
passer-by. If, however, they must listen to 
imaginary conversations about themselves, 
they might, at any rate, defy the proverb, 
and insist upon hearing themselves well 
spoken of. 

Well, but suppose that it is no fancy : and 
that you really are the object of unmerited 
obloquy. What then? It has been well 



IO AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 

said, that in that case the abuse does not 
touch you ; that if you are guiltless, it ought 
not to hurt your feelings any more than if it 
were said of another person, with whom you 
are not even acquainted. You may answer 
that this false description of you is often 
believed in by those whose good opinion is 
of importance to your welfare. That cer- 
tainly is a palpable injury ; and the best mode 
of bearing up against it is to endeavour to 
form some just estimate of its nature and 
extent. Measure it by the worldly harm 
which is done to you. Do not let your 
imagination conjure up all manner of appa- 
ritions of scorn, and contempt, and universal 
hissing. It is partly your own fault "if the 
calumny is believed in by those who ought 
to know you, and in whose affections you 
live. That should be a circle within which, 
no poisoned dart can reach you. And for the 
rest, for the injury done you in the world's 
estimation, it is simply a piece of ill- fortune, 
about which it is neither wise nor decorous 
to make much moaning. 

A little thought will sometimes prevent 
you from being discontented at not meeting 
with the gratitude which you have expected. 
If you were only to measure your expecta- 



AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. II 

tions of gratitude by the extent of benevo- 
lence which you have expended, you would 
seldom have occasion to call people ungrateful. 
But many persons are in the habit of giving 
such a factitious value to any services which 
they may render, that there is but little 
chance of their being contented with what 
they are likely to get in return, which, how- 
ever, may be quite as much as they deserve. 

Besides, it is a common thing for people to 
expect from gratitude what affection alone 
can give. 

There are many topics which may console 
you when you are displeased at not being as 
much esteemed as you think you ought to be. 
You may begin by observing that people in 
general will not look about for anybody's 
merits, or admire anything which does not 
come in their way. You may consider how 
satirical would be any praise which should 
not be based upon a just appreciation of 
your merits : you may reflect how few of 
your fellow-creatures can have the oppor- 
tunity of forming a just judgment about 
you : you may then go further, and think 
how few of those few are persons whose judg- 
ment would influence you deeply in other 



12 AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 

matters : and you may conclude by imagining 
that such persons do estimate you fairly; 
though perhaps you never hear it. 

The heart of man seeks for sympathy, and 
each of us craves a recognition of his talents 
and his labours. But this craving is in dan- 
ger of becoming morbid, unless it be con- 
stantly kept in check by calm reflection on 
its vanity, or by dwelling upon the very dif- 
ferent and far higher motives which should 
actuate us. That man has fallen into a 
pitiable state of moral sickness, in whose eyes 
the good opinion of his fellow-men is the test 
of merit, and their applause the principal 
reward for exertion. 

A habit of mistrust is the torment of some 
people. It taints their love and their friend- 
ship. They take up small causes of offence. 
They expect their friends to show the same 
aspect to them at all times ; which is more 
than human nature can do. They try expe- 
riments to ascertain whether they are suf- 
ficiently loved : they watch narrowly the 
effects of absence, and require their friends 
to prove to them that the intimacy is exactly 
upon the same footing as it was before. Some 
persons acquire these suspicious ways from a 



AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 1 3 

natural diffidence in themselves ; for which 
they are often loved the more : and they might 
find ample comfort in that, if they could but 
believe it. With others, these habits arise 
from a selfishness which cannot be satisfied. 
And their endeavours should be to uproot 
such a disposition, not to soothe it. 

Contentment abides with truth. And you 
will generally suffer for wishing to appear 
other than what you are ; whether it be richer, 
or greater, or more learned. The mask soon 
becomes an instrument of torture. 

Fit objects to employ the intervals of life 
are among the greatest aids to contentment 
that a man can possess. The lives of many 
persons are an alternation of the one engross- 
ing pursuit, and a sort of listless apathy. 
They are either grinding, or doing nothing. 
Now to those who are half their lives fiercely 
busy, the remaining half is often torpid with- 
out quiescence. A man should have some 
pursuits which may be always in his power, 
and to which he may turn gladly in his hours 
of recreation. 

And if the intellect requires thus to be 
provided with perpetual objects, what must 



14 AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 

it be with the affections ? Depend upon it, 
the most fatal idleness is that of the heart. 
And the man who feels weary of life may be 
sure that he does not love his fellow-creatures 
as he ought. 

You cannot hope for anything like con- ) 
tentment so long as you continue to attach 
that ridiculous degree of importance to the 
events of this life which so many people are 1 
inclined to do. Observe the effect which it 
has upon them : they are most uncomfortable 
if their little projects do not turn out accord- 
ing to their fancy — nothing is to be angular 
to them — they regard external things as the 
only realities ; and as they have fixed their 
abode here, they must have it arranged to 
their mind. In all they undertake, they feel 
the anxiety of a gambler, and not the calm- 
ness of a labouring man. It is, however, 
the success or failure of their efforts, and not 
the motives for their endeavour, which gives 
them this concern. c It will be all the same 
a hundred years hence/ So says the Epicu- 
rean as he saunters by. The Christian exhorts 
them to extend their hopes and their fears 
to the far future. But they are up to their 
lips in the present, though they taste it none 



AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 15 

the more for that. And so they go on, fret- 
ting, and planning, and contending; until an 
event, about which, of all their anxieties they 
have felt the least anxious, sweeps them and 
their cobwebs away from the face of the 
earth. 

I have no intention of putting forward 
specifics for real afflictions, or pretending to 
teach refined methods for avoiding grief. As 
long, however, as there is anything to be 
done in a matter, the time for grieving about 
it has not come. But when the subject 
for grief is fixed and inevitable, sorrow is J 
to be borne like pain. It is only a paroxysm 
of either that can justify us in neglecting 
the duties which no bereavement can lessen, 
and which no sorrow can leave us without. 
And we may remember that sorrow is at 
once, the lot, the trial, and the privilege, of 
man. 

Most of the aids to contentment above sug- 
gested, are comparatively, superficial ones; 
and, though they may be serviceable, there 
is much in human nature that they cannot 
touch. Even Pagans were wont to look for 
more potent remedies. They could not help 



1 6 AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 

seeking for some great idea to rest upon; 
something to still the throbbings of their 
souls ; some primaeval mystery which should 
be answerable for the miseries of life. Such 
was their idea of Necessity, the source of 
such systems as the Stoic and the Epicurean. 
Christianity rests upon very different founda- 
tions. And surely a Christian's reliance on 
divine goodness, and his full belief in another 
world, should console him under serious 
affliction, and bear the severer test of support- 
ing him against that under-current of vexa- 
tions which is not wanting in the smoothest 
life. 



ON SELF-DISCIPLINE. 

THERE is always some danger of self- 
discipline leading to a state of self-con- 
fidence : and the more so, when the motives 
for it are of a poor and worldly character, or 
the results of it outward only, and superficial. 
But surely when a man has got the better of 
any bad habit or evil disposition, his sensa- 
tions should not be those of exultation only : 
ought they not rather to be akin to the shud- 
dering faintness with which he would survey 
a chasm that he had been guided to avoid, or 
with which he would recal to mind a dubious 
deadly struggle which had terminated in his 
favour? The sense of danger is never, per- 
haps, so fully apprehended as when the dan- 
ger has been overcome. 

Self-discipline is grounded on self-know- 
ledge. A man may be led to resolve upon 
some general course of self-discipline by a 
faint glimpse of his moral degradation : let 
him not be contented with that small insight. 
His first step in self-discipline should be to 
attempt to have something like an adequate 



1 8 ON SELF-DISCIPLINE. 

idea of • the extent of the disorder. The 
deeper he goes in this matter the better : he 
must try to probe his own nature thoroughly. 
Men often make use of what self-knowledge 
they may possess to frame for themselves 
skilful flattery, or to amuse themselves in 
fancying what such persons as they are would 
do under various imaginary circumstances. 
For flatteries and for fancies of this kind, not 
much depth of self-knowledge is required : 
but he who wants to understand his own 
nature for the purposes of self-discipline, 
must strive to learn the whole truth about 
himself, and not shrink from telling it to his 
own soul : — 

' To thine own self be true, 
And it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man.' 

The old courtier Polonius meant this for 
worldly wisdom : but it may be construed 
much more deeply. 

Imagine the soul, then, thoroughly awake 
to its state of danger, and the whole energies 
of the man devoted to self-improvement. At 
this point, there often arises a habit of intro- 
spection which is too limited in its nature : we 
scrutinize each action as if it were a thing 



ON SELF-DISCIPLINE. 1 9 

by itself, independent and self- originating; 
and so our scrutiny does less good, perhaps, 
than might be expected from the pain it gives 
and the resolution it requires. Any truthful 
examination into our actions must be good ; 
but we ought not to be satisfied with it, until 
it becomes both searching and progressive. 
Its aim should be not only to investigate 
instances, but to discover principles. Thus, 
— suppose that our conscience upbraids us 
for any particular bad habit : we then regard 
each instance of it with intense self-reproach, 
and long for an opportunity of proving the 
amendment which seems certain to arise 
from our pangs of regret. The trial comes : 
and sometimes our former remorse is remem- 
bered, and saves us ; and sometimes it is 
forgotten, and our conduct is as bad as it 
was before our conscience was awakened. 
Now in such a case we should begin at the 
beginning, and strive to discover where it is 
that we are wrong in the heart. This is not 
to be done by weighing each particular in- 
stance, and observing after what interval it 
occurred, and whether with a little more, or 
a little' less, temptation than usual : instead 
of dwelling chiefly on mere circumstances 
of this kind, we should try and get at the 

c % 



20 ON SELF-DISCIPLINE. 

substance of the thing, so as to ascertain 
what fundamental precept of God is vio- 
lated by the habit in question. That pre- 
cept we should make our study; and then 
there is more hope of a permanent amend- 
ment. 

Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep 
away a mist ; but, by ascending a little, you 
may often look over it altogether. So it is 
with our moral improvement : we wrestle 
fiercely with a vicious habit, which would 
have no hold upon us if we ascended into a 
higher moral atmosphere. 

As I have heard suggested, it is by adding 
to our good purposes, and nourishing the 
affections which are rightly placed, that we 
shall best be able to combat the bad ones. 
By adopting such a course you will not have 
yielded to your enemy, but will have gone, in 
all humility, to form new alliances : you will 
then resist an evil habit with the strength 
which you have gained in carrying out a 
good one. You will find, too, that when you 
set your heart upon the things that are 
worthy of it, the small selfish ends, which 
used to be so dear to it, will appear almost 



ON SELF-DISCIPLINE. 21 

disgusting : you will wonder that they could 
have had such hold upon you. 

In the same way, if you extend and deepen 
your sympathies, the prejudices which have 
hitherto clung obstinately to you will fall 
away : your former uncharitableness will seem 
absolutely distasteful : you will have brought 
home to it feelings and opinions with which 
it cannot live. 

Man, a creature of twofold nature, body and 
soul, should have both parts of that nature 
engaged in any matter in which he is con- 
cerned : spirit and form must both enter into 
it. It is idol-worship to substitute the form 
for the spirit : but it is a vain philosophy 
which seeks to dispense with the form. All 
this applies to self-discipline. 

See how most persons love to connect some 
outward circumstance with their good resolu- 
tions : they resolve on commencing the new 
year with a surrender of this bad habit : they 
will alter their conduct as soon as they are 
at such a place. The mind thus shows its 
feebleness; but we must not conclude that 
the support it naturally seeks is useless. At the 
same time that we are to turn our chief atten- 
tion to the attainment of right principles, we 



22 ON SELF-DISCIPLINE. 

cannot safely neglect any assistance which 
may strengthen us in contending against bad 
habits : far is it from the spirit of true humi- 
lity to look down upon such assistance. Who 
would not be glad to have the ring of Eastern 
story, which should remind the wearer by 
its change of colour of his want of shame? 
Still these auxiliaries partake of a mechanical 
nature : we must not expect more from them 
than they can give : they may serve as aids 
to memory ; they may form landmarks, as it 
were, of our progress ; but they cannot, of 
themselves, maintain that progress. 

It is in a similar spirit that we should 
treat what may be called prudential consi- 
derations. We may listen to the suggestions 
of prudence, and find them an aid to self- 
discipline; but we should never rest upon 
them. While we do not fail to make the 
due use of them, we must never forget that 
they do not go to the root of the matter. 
Prudence may enable a man to conquer the 
world, but not to rule his own heart: it 
may change one evil passion for another; 
but it is not a thing of potency enough to 
make a man change his nature. 

Prayer is a constant source of invigora- 



ON SELF-DISCIPLINE. 23 

tion to self-discipline : not the thoughtless 
praying, which is a thing of custom; but 
that which is sincere, intense, watchful. Let 
a man ask himself whether he really would 
have the thing he prays for : let him think, 
while he is praying for a spirit of forgive- 
ness, whether even at that moment he is 
disposed to give up the luxury of anger. 
If not, what a horrible mockery it is ! To 
think that a man can find nothing better 
to do, in the presence of his Creator, than 
telling off so many words : alone with his 
God, and repeating his task like a child : 
longing to get rid of it, and indifferent to 
its meaning ! 



ON OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER 
MEN. 

IN forming these lightly, we wrong our- 
selves, and those whom we judge. In 
scattering such things abroad, we endow our 
unjust thoughts with a life which we cannot 
take away, and become false witnesses to 
pervert the judgments of the world in gene- 
ral. Who does not feel that to describe with 
fidelity the least portion of the entangled 
nature that is within him would be no easy 
matter ? And yet the same man who feels 
this, and who, perhaps, would be ashamed of 
talking at hazard about the properties of a 
flower, of a weed, of some figure in geometry, 
will put forth his guesses about the character 
of his brother-man, as if he had the fullest 
authority for all that he was saying. 

But perhaps we are not wont to make such 
rash remarks ourselves : we are only pleased 
to receive them with the most obliging cre- 
dence from the lips of any person we may 
chance to meet with. Such credulity is any- 



OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN. 25 

thing but blameless. We cannot think too 
seriously of the danger of taking upon trust 
these off-hand sayings, and of the positive 
guilt of uttering them as if they were our 
own, or had been assayed by our observation. 
How much we should be ashamed if we knew 
the slight grounds of some of those unchari- 
table judgments to which we lend the influ- 
ence of our name by repeating them ! And 
even if we repeat such things only as we 
have good reason to believe in, we should 
still be in no hurry to put them forward, 
especially if they are sentences of condemna- 
tion. There is a maxim of this kind which 
Thomas a Kempis, in his chapter ' de pru- 
dentia in agendis/ has given with all the 
force of expression that it merits. ' Ad hanc 
etiam pertinet, non quibuslibet hominum 
verbis credere ; nee audita vel credita, mox ad 
aliorum aures effimdereS 

There are certain things quite upon the 
surface of a man's character : there are cer- 
tain obvious facts in any man's conduct : and 
there are persons who, being very much be- 
fore the world, offer plenty of materials for 
judging about them. Such circumstances as 
these may fairly induce you to place credence 
in a general opinion, which, however, you 



26 ON OUR JUDGMENTS 

have no means of verifying in any way for 
yourself: but in no case should you suffer 
yourself to be carried away at once by the 
current sayings about men's characters and 
conduct. If you do, you are helping to form 
a mob. Consider what these sayings are : 
how seldom they embody the character dis- 
cussed ; or go far to exhaust the question, if 
it is one of conduct. It is well if they de- 
scribe a part with faithfulness, or give indi- 
cations from which a shrewd and impartial 
thinker may deduce some true conclusions. 
Again, these sayings may be true in them- 
selves, but the prominence given to them 
may lead to very false impressions. Besides, 
how many of them must be formed upon the 
opinion of a few persons, and those, perhaps, 
forward thinkers. 

You feel that you yourself would be liable 
to make mistakes of all kinds if you had to 
form an independent judgment in the matter : 
do not too readily suppose that the general 
opinions you hear are free from such mis- 
takes merely because they are made, or 
appear to you to be made, by a great many 
people. 

If we come to analyse the various opinions 



OF OTHER MEN. 27 

we hear of men's character and conduct, 
there must be many which are formed wrongly, 
though sincerely, either from imperfect in- 
formation, or erroneous reasoning. There 
will be others which are the simple result of 
the prejudices and passions of the persons 
judging, of their humours, and sometimes 
even of their ingenuity. There will be others 
grounded on total misrepresentations which 
arise from imperfect hearing, or from some 
entire mistake, or from a report being made 
by a person who understood so little of the 
matter that it was not possible for him to 
convey, with anything like accuracy, what 
he heard about it. Then there are the care- 
less things which are said in general conver- 
sation, but which often have as much ap- 
parent weight as if they had been well con- 
sidered. Sometimes these various causes are 
combined; and the result is, that an opinion 
of some man's character and conduct gets 
abroad which is formed after a wrong method, 
by prejudiced persons, upon a false state- 
ment of facts, respecting a matter which they 
cannot possibly understand ; and this is then 
left to be inflated by Folly, and blown about 
by Idleness. 

There is an excellent passage in Wollas- 



28 ON OUR JUDGMENTS 

ton's Religion of Nature, upon this subject, 
where he says, c the good or bad repute of 
men depends in a great measure upon mean 
people, who carry their stories from family 
to family, and propagate them very fast : 
like little insects, which lay apace, and the 
less the faster. There are few, very few, 
who have the opportunity and the will 
and the ability to represent things truly. 
Beside the matters of fact themselves, 
there are many circumstances which, before 
sentence is passed, ought to be known 
and weighed, and yet scarce ever can be 
known, but to the person himself who is 
concerned. He may have other views, and 
another sense of things, than his judges 
have : and what he understands, what he 
feels, what he intends, may be a secret con- 
fined to his own breast. Or perhaps the cen- 
surer, notwithstanding this kind of men talk 
as if they were infallible, may be mistaken 
himself in his opinion, and judge that to be 
wrong which in truth is right/ 

Few people have imagination enough to 
enter into the delusions of others, or indeed 
to look at the actions of any other person 
with any prejudices but their own. Perhaps, 
however, it would be nearer the truth to say 



OF OTHER MEN. 29 

that few people are in the habit of employ- 
ing their imagination in the service of charity. 
Most persons require its magic aid to gild 
their castles in the air; to conduct them 
along those fancied triumphal processions in 
which they themselves play so conspicuous a 
part; to conquer enemies for them without 
battles ; and to make them virtuous without 
effort. This is what they want their imagi- 
nation for : they cannot spare it for any little 
errand of charity. And sometimes when 
men do think charitably, they are afraid to 
speak out, for fear of being considered stupid, 
or credulous. 

We have been considering the danger of 
adopting current sayings about men's cha- 
racter and conduct : but suppose we con- 
sider, in detail, the difficulty of forming an 
original opinion on these matters ; especially 
if we have not a personal knowledge of the 
men of whom we speak. In the first place, 
we seldom know with sufficient exactness the 
facts upon which we judge : and a little 
thing may make a great difference when we 
come to investigate motives. But the report 
of a transaction sometimes represents the 
real facts no better than the laboured varia- 



30 ON OUR JUDGMENTS 

tion does the simple air ; which, amidst so 
many shakes and flourishes, might not be 
recognized even by the person who composed 
it. Then again, how can we ensure that 
we rightly interpret those actions which we 
exactly know ? Perhaps one of the first mo- 
tives that we look for is self-interest, when 
we want to explain an action : but we have 
scarcely ever such a knowledge of the nature 
and fortunes of another, as to be able to 
decide what is his interest, much less what 
it may appear to him to be : besides, a man's 
fancies, his envy, his wilfulness, every day 
interfere with, and override his interests. 
He will know this himself, and will often try 
to conceal it by inventing motives of self- 
interest to account for his doing what he has 
a mind to do. 

It is well to be thoroughly impressed with 
a sense of the difficulty of judging about 
others; still judge we must, and sometimes 
very hastily : the purposes of life require it. 
We have, however, more and better mate- 
rials, sometimes, than we are aware of : we 
must not imagine that they are always deep- 
seated and recondite : they often lie upon 
the surface. Indeed, the primary character 



OF OTHER MEN. 3 1 

of a man is especially discernible in trifles ; 
for then lie acts, as it were, almost uncon- 
sciously. It is upon the method of observing 
and testing these things, that a just know- 
ledge of individual men in great measure 
depends. You may learn more of a person 
even by a little converse with him, than by a 
faithful outline of his history. The most im- 
portant of his actions may be anything but 
the most significant of the man; for they 
are likely to be the results of many things 
besides his nature. To understand that, I 
doubt whether you might not learn more from 
a good portrait of him, than from two or 
three of the most prominent actions of his life. 
Indeed, if men did not express much of their 
nature in their manners, appearance, and 
general bearing, we should be at a sad loss to 
make up our minds how to deal with each 
other. 

In judging of others, it is important to dis- 
tinguish those parts of the character and 
intellect which are easily discernible from 
those which require much observation. In 
the intellect, we soon perceive whether a man 
has wit, acuteness, or logical power. It is not 
easy to discover whether he has judgment. 
And it requires some study of the man to 



3 a ON OUK JUDGMENTS 

ascertain whether he has practical wisdom ; 
which, indeed, is a result of high moral, as 
well as intellectual, qualities. 

In the moral nature, we soon detect self- 
ishness, egotism, and exaggeration. Careless- 
ness about truth is soon found out ; you see 
it in a thousand little things. On the other 
hand, it is very difficult to come to a right 
conclusion about a man's temper, until you 
have seen a great deal of him. /Of his tastes, 
some will lie on the surface, others not ; for 
there is a certain reserve about most people in 
speaking of the things they like best^ Again, 
it is always a hard matter to understand any 
man's feelings. Nations differ in their modes 
of expressing feelings, and how much more 
individual men ! 

There are certain cases in which we are 
peculiarly liable to err in our judgments of 
others. Thus, I think, we are all disposed 
to dislike in a manner disproportionate to 
their demerits, those who offend us by pre- 
tension of any kind. We are apt to fancy 
that they despise us ; whereas, all the while, 
perhaps, they are only courting our admira- 
tion. There are people who wear the worst 
part of their characters outwards : they offend 
our vanity ; they rouse our fears ; and under 



OF OTHER MEN. 33 

these influences we omit to consider how 
often a scornful man is tender-hearted, and 
an assuming man, one who longs to be popu- 
lar and to please. 

Then there are characters of such a dif- 
ferent kind from our own, that we are with- 
out the means of measuring and appreciating 
them. A man who has no humour, how dif- 
ficult for him to understand one who has ! 

But of all the errors in judging of others, 
some of the worst are made in judging of 
those who are nearest to us. They think that 
we have entirely made up our minds about 
them, and are apt to show us that sort of 
behaviour only which they know we expect. 
Perhaps, too, they fear us, or they are con- 
vinced that we do not and cannot sympathize 
with them. And so we move about in a 
mist, and talk of phantoms as if they were 
living men, and think that we understand 
those who never interchange any discourse 
with us, but the talk of the market-place; or 
if they do, it is only as players who are 
playing a part, set down in certain words, to 
be eked out with the stage gestures for each 
affection, who would deem themselves little 
else than mad if they were to say out to us 
any thing of their own. 

D 



ON THE 
. EXERCISE OF BENEVOLENCE. 

WITH the most engaging objects of bene- 
volence around them, men consume 
the largest part of their existence in the ac- 
quisition of money, or of knowledge ; or in 
sighing for the opportunities of advancement ; 
or in doting over some unavailing sorrow. 
Or, as it often happens, they are outwardly 
engaged in slaving over the forms and follies 
of the world, while their minds are given up 
to dreams of vanity ; or to long-drawn reve- 
ries, a mere indulgence of their fancy. And 
yet hard by them are groans, and horrors, 
and sufferings of all kinds, which seem to 
penetrate no deeper than their senses. 

Let them think what boundless occupa- 
tions there are before us all ! Consider the 
masses of human beings in our manufac- 
turing towns and crowded cities, left to their 
own devices — the destitute peasantry of our 
sister-land — the horrors of slavery wherever 
it exists — the general aspect of the common 
people — the pervading want of education — 



THE EXERCISE OF BENEVOLENCE. 35 

the fallacies and falsehoods which are left, 
unchecked, to accomplish all the mischief 
that is in them — the many legal and execu- 
tive reforms not likely to meet with much 
popular impulse, and requiring, on that 
account, the more diligence from those who 
have any insight into such matters. By 
employing himself upon any one of the above 
subjects, a man is likely to do some good. 
If he only ascertains what has been done, 
and what is doing, in any of these matters, 
he may be of great service. A man of real 
information becomes a centre of opinion, and 
therefore of action. 

Many a man will say : — ' This is all very 
true : there certainly is a great deal of good 
to be done. Indeed, one is perplexed what 
to choose as one's point of action ; and still 
more how to begin upon it/ To which I 
would answer : — Is there no one service for 
the great family of man which has yet in- 
terested you? Is no work of benevolence 
brought near to you by the peculiar circum- 
stances of your life ? If there is ; follow it at 
once. If not; still you must not wait for 
something apposite to occur. Take up any 
subject relating to the welfare of mankind, 
the first that comes to hand : read about it : 



36 ON THE EXERCISE 

think about it : trace it in the world, and see 
if it will not come to your heart. How list- 
lessly the eye glances over the map of a 
country upon which we have never set foot ! 
On the other hand, with what satisfaction 
we contemplate the mere outline only of a 
land we have once travelled over ! Think 
earnestly upon any subject, investigate it 
sincerely, and you are sure to love it. You 
will not complain again of not knowing 
whither to direct your attention. There have 
been enthusiasts about heraldry. Many have 
devoted themselves to chess. Is the welfare 
of living, thinking, suffering, eternal crea- 
tures, less interesting than ' argent' and 
' azure/ or than the knight's move, and the 
progress of a pawn ? 

There are many persons, doubtless, who 
feel the wants and miseries of their fellow 
men tenderly if not deeply ; but this feeling 
is not of the kind to induce them to exert 
themselves out of their own small circle. 
They have little faith in their individual ex- 
ertions doing aught towards a remedy for 
any of the great disorders of the world. If 
an evil of magnitude forces itself upon their 
attention, they take shelter in a comfortable 
sort of belief that the course of events, or the 



OF BENEVOLENCE. 37 

gradual enlightenment of mankind, or at any 
rate, something which is too large for them 
to have any concern in, will set it right. In 
short, they are content to remain spectators : 
or, at best, to wait until an occasion shall 
arrive when their benevolence may act at 
once, with as little preparation of means, as 
if it were something magical. 

But opportunities of doing good, though 
abundant, and obvious enough, are not ex- 
actly fitted to our hands : we must be alert 
in preparing ourselves for them. Benevo- 
lence requires method and activity in its 
exercise. It is by no means the same sort 
of thing as the indolent good humour with 
which a well-fed man, reclining on a sunny 
bank, looks upon the working world around 
him. 

As to the notion of waiting for the power 
to do good, it is one that we must never 
listen to. Surely the exercise of a man's 
benevolence is not to depend upon his 
worldly good fortune ! Every man has to- 
day the power of laying some foundation for 
doing good ; if not of doing it. And whoever 
does not exert himself until he has a large 
power of carrying out his good intentions, 
may be sure that he will not make the most 



38 ON THE EXERCISE 

of the opportunity when it comes. It is not 
in the heat of action ; nor when a man, from 
his position, is likely to be looked up to with 
some reverence ; that he should have to begin 
his search for facts or principles. He should 
then come forth to apply results ; not to work 
them out painfully, and perhaps precipitately, 
before the eyes of the world. 

The worldly-wise may ask : — c Will not 
these benevolent pursuits prevent a man 
from following with sufficient force (what 
they call) his legitimate occupations V I 
do not see why. Surely Providence has not 
made our livelihood such an all-absorbing 
affair, that it does not leave us room or time 
for our benevolence to work in. However, if 
a man will only give up that portion of his 
thinking time which he spends upon vain 
glory, upon imagining, for instance, what 
other people are thinking about him, he will 
have time and energy enough to pursue a very 
laborious system of benevolence. 

I do not mean to contend that active be- 
nevolence may not hinder a man's advance- 
ment in the world : for advancement greatly 
depends upon a reputation for excellence in 
some one thing of which the world perceives 



OF BENEVOLENCE. 39 

that it has present need: and an obvious 
attention to other things, though perhaps not 
incompatible with the excellence itself, may 
easily prevent a person from obtaining a 
reputation for it. But any deprivation of 
this kind would be readily endured if we only 
took the view of our social relations which 
Christianity opens to us. We should then 
see that benevolence is not a thing to be 
taken up by chance, and put by at once 
to make way for every employment which 
savours of self-interest. Benevolence is the 
largest part of our business, beginning with 
our home duties, and extending itself to the 
utmost verge of humanity. A vague feeling 
of kindness towards our fellow creatures is 
no state of mind to rest in. It is not enough 
for us to be able to say that nothing of human 
interest is alien to us, and that we give our 
acquiescence, or indeed our transient assistance, 
to any scheme of benevolence that may come 
in our way. No: in promoting the welfare 
of others we must toil ; we must devote to it 
earnest thought, constant care, and zealous 
endeavour. What is more, we must do all 
this with patience; and be ready, in the same 
cause, to make an habitual sacrifice of our 
own tastes and wishes. Nothing short of 



40 01ST THE EXERCISE 

this is the visiting the sick, feeding the 
hungry, and clothing the naked, which our 
creed requires of us. 

Kindness to animals is no unworthy exer- 
cise of benevolence. We hold that the life 
of brutes perishes with their breath, and that 
they are never to be clothed again with con- 
sciousness. The inevitable shortness then of 
their existence should plead for them touch- 
ingly. The insects on the surface of the 
water, poor ephemeral things, who would 
needlessly abridge their dancing pleasure of 
to-day? Such feelings we should have 
towards the whole animate creation. To 
those animals, over which we are masters for 
however short a time, we have positive duties 
to perform. This seems too obvious to be 
insisted upon ; but there are persons who act 
as though they thought they could buy the 
right of ill-treating any of God's creatures. 

We should never in any way consent to the 
ill-treatment of animals, because the fear of 
ridicule, or some other fear, prevents our 
interfering. As to there being anything really 
trifling in any act of humanity, however 
slight, it is moral blindness to suppose so. 
The few moments in the course of each day 



OF BENEVOLENCE. 4 1 

which a man absorbed in some worldly 
pursuit may carelessly expend in kind words 
or trifling charities to those around him, and 
kindness to an animal is one of these, are 
perhaps, in the sight of Heaven, the only 
time that he has lived to any purpose worthy 
of recording. 



DOMESTIC RULE. 

TACITUS says of Agricola, that 'he go- 
verned his family, which many find to be 
a harder task than to govern a province/ 
And the worst of this difficulty is, that its 
existence is frequently unperceived, until it 
comes to be pressingly felt. 

For, either a man thinks that he must 
needs understand those whom he sees daily, 
and also, perhaps, that it is no great matter 
whether he understand them or not, if he is 
resolved to do his duty by them : or he 
believes that in domestic rule there is much 
license, and that each occasion is to be dealt 
with by some law made at the time, or after : 
or he imagines that any domestic matter 
which he may leave to-day omitted or ill- 
done can be repaired at his leisure, when the 
concerns of the outer world are not so pressing 
as they are at present. 

But each day brings its own duties, and 
carries them along with it ; and they are as 
waves broken on the shore, many like them 
coming after but none ever the same. And 



DOMESTIC RULE. 43 

amongst all his duties, as there are none in 
which a man acts more by himself and can do 
more harm with less outcry from the world, 
so there are none requiring more forethought 
and watchfulness than those which arise from 
his domestic relations. Nor can there be a 
reasonable hope of his fulfilling those duties 
while he is ignorant of the feelings, however 
familiar he may be with the countenances, of 
those around hirm 

The extent and power of domestic rule are 
very great : but this is often overlooked by 
the persons who possess it; and they are 
rather apt to underrate the influence of their 
own authority. They can hardly imagine 
how strongly it is felt by others, unless they 
see it expressed in something outward. The 
effects of this mistake are often increased by 
another, which comes into operation when 
men are dealing with their inferiors in rank 
and education: in which case, they are rather 
apt to fancy that the natural sense of pro- 
priety, which would put the right limit to 
familiar intercourse, belongs only to the well- 
educated or the well-born. And from either 
of these causes, or both united, they are led, 
perhaps, to add to their authority by a harsh- 



44 DOMESTIC RULE. 

ness not their own, rather than to impair it, 
as they fancy, by that degree of freedom 
which they must allow to those around them, 
if they would .enter into their feelings and 
understand their dispositions. Perhaps there 
are some persons who think that they can 
manage very well without this familiar inter- 
course : and certainly there is but little 
occasion for knowing much about the nature 
of those whom you intend only to restrain. 
Coercion, however, is but a small part of 
government. 

We should always be most anxious to avoid 
provoking the rebel spirit of the will in 
those who are entrusted to our guidance : we 
should not attempt to tie them up to their 
duties, like galley-slaves to their labour. We 
should be very careful that, in our anxiety to 
get the outward part of an action performed 
to our mind, we do not destroy that germ of 
spontaneousness which could alone give any 
significance to the action. God has allowed 
free will to man, for the choice of good or 
evil ; and is it likely that it is left to us to 
make our fellow-creatures virtuous by word 
of command ? We may insist upon a routine 
of proprieties being performed with soldier- 



DOMESTIC RULE. 45 

like precision; but there is no drilling of men's 
hearts. 

It is a great thing to maintain the just 
limits of domestic authority, and to place it 
upon its right foundation. You cannot make 
reason conform to it. It may be fair to insist 
upon a certain thing being done, but not that 
others should agree with you in saying that 
it is the best thing that could have been 
done; for there cannot be a shorter way of 
making them hypocritical. Your submitting 
the matter at all to their judgments may be 
gratuitous ; but if you do so, you must re- 
member that the Courts of Reason recognize 
no difference of persons. Your wishes may 
fairly outweigh their arguments : but this of 
course is foreign to the reasonableness or un- 
reasonableness of the thing itself, considered 
independently. 

Domestic Rule is founded upon truth and 
love. If it has not both of these, it is nothing 
better than a despotism. 

It requires the perpetual exercise of love 
in its most extended form. You have to 
learn the dispositions of those under you, 
and to teach them to understand yours. In 
order to do this, you must sympathize with 



46 DOMESTIC RULE. 

them, and convince them of your doing so; 
for upon your sympathy will often depend 
their truthfulness. Thus, you must persuade 
a child to place confidence in you, if you wish 
to form an open upright character. You 
cannot terrify it into habits of truth. On 
the contrary, are not its earliest falsehoods 
caused by fear, much oftener than from a wish 
to obtain any of its little ends by deceit? 
How often the complaint is heard from those 
in domestic authority, that they are not con- 
fided in ! But they forget how hard it is for 
an inferior to confide in a superior, and that 
he will scarcely venture to do so without 
the hope of some sympathy on the part of 
the latter; and the more so, as half our con- 
fidences are about our follies, or what we deem 
such. 

Every one who has paid the slightest at- 
tention to this subject knows that domestic 
rule is built upon justice, and therefore upon 
truth; but it may not have been observed 
what evils will arise from even a slight de- 
viation into conventionality. For instance, 
there is a common expression about ' over- 
looking trifles/ But what many persons 
should say, when they use this expression, is, 
— That they affect not to observe something, 



DOMESTIC RULE. 47 

when there is no reason why they should not 
openly recognize it. Thus they contrive to 
make matter of offence out of things which 
really have no harm in them. Or the ex- 
pression means that they do not care to take 
notice of something which they really believe 
to be wrong ; and as it is not of much present 
annoyance to them, they persuade themselves 
that it is not of much harm to those who 
practise it. In either case, it is their duty 
to look boldly at the matter. The greater 
quantity of truth and distinctness you can 
throw into your proceedings, the better. 
Connivance creates uncertainty, and gives 
an example of slyness; and very often you 
will find that you connive at some practice, 
merely because you have not made up your 
mind whether it is right or wrong, and you 
wish to spare yourself the trouble of thinking. 
All this is falsehood. 

Whatever you allow in the way of pleasure 
or of liberty, to those under your control, you 
should do it heartily : you should recognize 
it entirely, encourage it, and enter into it. 
If, on the contrary, you do not care for their 
pleasures, or sympathize with their happiness, 
how can you expect to obtain their confidence? 
And when you tell them that you consult 



48 DOMESTIC RULE. 

their welfare, they look upon it as some 
abstract idea of your own. They will 
doubt whether you can know what is best 
for them, if they have good reason for think- 
ing that you are likely to leave their parti- 
cular views of happiness entirely out of the 
account. 

We come next to consider some of the 
various means which may be made use of in 
Domestic Rule. 

Of course it is obvious that his own ex- 
ample must be the chief means in any man's 
power, by which he can illustrate and enforce 
those duties which he seeks to impress upon 
his household. 

Next to this, praise and blame are among 
the strongest means which he possesses ; and 
they should not depend upon his humour. 
He should not throw a bit of praise at his 
dependents by way of making up for a pre- 
vious display of anger, not warranted by the 
occasion. 

Ridicule is in general to be avoided; not 
that it is inefficient, perhaps, for the present 
purpose ; but because it tends to make a poor 
and world-fearing character. It is too strong 
a remedy : and can seldom be applied with 



DOMESTIC KULE. 49 

such just precision as to neutralize the evil 
aimed at, without destroying, at the same 
time, something that is good. 

Still less should it ever appear that ridicule 
is directed against that which is good in itself, 
or which may be the beginning of goodness. 
There is perhaps more gentleness required in 
dealing with the infant virtues, than even 
with the vices, of those under our guidance. 
We should be very kind to any attempt at 
amendment. An idle sneer, or a look of 
incredulity, has been the death of many a 
good resolve. We should also be very cautious 
in reminding those who now would fain be 
wiser, of their rash sayings of evil, of their 
early and uncharitable judgments of others ; 
otherwise we run a great risk of hardening 
them in evil. This is especially to be guarded 
against with the young; for never having 
felt the mutability of all human things, nor 
having lived long enough to discover that 
his former certainties are among the strangest 
things which a man looks back upon in the 
vista of the past : not perceiving that time 
is told by that pendulum, man, which goes 
backwards and forwards in its progress ; nor 
dreaming that the way to some opinions may 
lie through their opposites ; they are mightily 

E 



50 DOMESTIC RULE. 

ashamed of inconsistency, and may be made 
to look upon reparation as a crime. 

The following are some general maxims 
which may be of service to any one in do- 
mestic authority. 

The first is to make as few crimes as he 
can : and not to lay down those rules of 
practice, which, from a careful observation 
of their consequences, he has ascertained to 
be salutary, as if they were so many innate 
truths which all persons alike must at once, 
and fully, comprehend. 

Let him not attempt to regulate other 
people's pleasures by his own tastes. 

In commanding, it will not always be super- 
fluous for him to reflect whether the thing 
commanded is possible. 

In punishing, he should not consult his 
anger ; nor in remitting punishment, his ease. 

Let him consider whether any part of what 
he is inclined to call disobedience, may have 
resulted from an insufficient expression of his 
own wishes. 

He should be inclined to trust largely. 



ADVICE. 

ADVICE is sure of a hearing when it 
coincides- with our previous conclusions, 
and therefore comes in the shape of praise, 
or of encouragement. It is not unwelcome 
when we derive it for ourselves, by applying 
the moral of some other person's life to our 
own, though the points of resemblance which 
bring it home may be far from nattering, and 
the advice itself far from palatable. We can 
even endure its being addressed to us by 
another, when it is interwoven with regret at 
some error, not of ours, but of his ; and when 
we see that he throws in a little advice to us, 
by way of introducing, with more grace, a 
full recital of his own misfortunes. 

But in general it is with advice as with 
taxation ; we can endure very little of either, 
if they come to us in the direct way. They 
must not thrust themselves upon us. "We do 
not understand their knocking at our doors ; 

E 2 



5 2 ADVICE. 

besides, they always choose such inconvenient 
times, and are for ever talking of arrears. 

There is a wide difference between the 
advice which is thrust upon you, and that 
which you have to seek for ; the general care- 
lessness of the one, and the caution of the 
other, are to be taken into account. In sifting 
the latter, you must take care to separate the 
decorous part of it. I mean all that which 
the adviser puts in, because he thinks the 
world would expect it from a person of his 
character and station — all that which was to 
sound well to a third party, of whom, perhaps, 
the adviser stands somewhat in awe. You 
cannot expect him to neglect his own safety. 
The oracles will Philippize, as long as Philip 
is the master : but still they have an inner 
meaning for Athenian ears. 

It is a disingenuous thing to ask for advice, 
when you mean assistance ; and it will be a 
just punishment if you get that which you 
pretended to want. There is a still greater 
insincerity in affecting to care about another's 
advice, when you lay the circumstances before 
him, only for the chance of his sanctioning a 
course which you had previously resolved on. 
This practice is noticed by Eochefoucault, 



ADVICE. $3 

who has also laid bare the falseness of those 
givers of advice who have hardly heard to the 
end of your story, before they have begun to 
think how they can advise upon it to their 
own interest, or their own renown. 

It is a maxim of prudence that when you 
advise a man to do something which is for 
your own interest as well as for his, you 
should put your own motive for advising him, 
full in view, with all the weight that belongs 
to it. If you conceal the interest which you 
have in the matter, and he should afterwards 
discover it, he will be resolutely deaf even to 
that part of the argument which fairly does 
concern himself. If the lame man had endea- 
voured to persuade his blind friend that it 
was pure charity which induced him to lend 
the use of his eyes, you may be certain that 
he never would have been carried home, 
though it was the other's interest to carry 
him. 

To get extended views, you should consult 
with persons who differ from you in disposi- 
tion, circumstances, and modes of thought. 
At the same time, the most practicable advice 
may often be obtained from those who are of 



54 ADVICE. 

a similar nature to yourself, or who under- 
stand you so thoroughly that they are sure 
to make their advice personal. This advice 
will contain sympathy; for as it has been 
said, a man always sympathizes to a certain 
extent with what he understands. It will not, 
perhaps, be the soundest advice that can be 
given in the abstract, but it may be that which 
you can best profit by ; for you may be able 
to act up to it with some consistency. This 
applies more particularly when the advice is 
wanted for some matter which is not of a 
temporary nature, and where a course of 
action will have to be adopted. It is observed 
in The Statesman with much truth, ' Nothing 
can be for a man's interest in the long run 
which is not founded on his character/ 

For similar reasons, when you have to give 
advice, you should never forget whom you 
are addressing, and what is practicable for 
him. You should not look about for the 
wisest thing which can be said, but for that 
which your friend has the heart to undertake, 
and the ability to accomplish. You must ; 
sometimes feel with him, before you can 
possibly think for him. There is more need 
of keeping this in mind, the greater you know 
the difference to be between your friend's 



ADVICE. 55 

nature and your own. Your advice should 
not degenerate into comparisons between 
what w r ould have been your conduct, and 
what was your friend's. You should be able 
to take the matter up at the point at which 
it is brought to you. It is very well to go 
back, and to show him what might, or what 
ought to have been done, if it throws any 
light upon what is to be done; or if you 
have any other good purpose in such con- 
versation. But remember that comment, 
however judicious, is not advice; and that 
advice should always tend to something prac- 
ticable. 

The advice which we have been just speak- 
ing of, is of that kind which relates to points 
of conduct. If you want to change a man's 
principles, you may have to take him out of 
himself, as it were ; to show him fully the 
intense difference between your own views 
and his, and to trace up that difference to 
its source. Your object is not to make him 
do the best with what he has, but to induce 
him to throw something away altogether. 

There are occasions on which a man feels 
that he has so fully made up his mind that 
hardly anything Could move him; and at 



/ 






5 6 ADVICE. 

the same time, he knows that he shall meet 
with much blame from those whose good 
opinion is of value to him, if he acts accord- 
ing to that mind. Let him not think to 
break his fall by asking their advice before- 
hand. As it is, they will be severe upon him 
for not having consulted them ; but they will 
be outrageous, if after having consulted them, 
he then acts in direct opposition to their 
counsel. Besides, they will not be so in- 
clined to parade the fact of their not having 
been consulted, as they would, of their hav- 
ing given judicious advice which was un- 
happily neglected. I am not speaking of 
those instances in which a man is bound to 
consult others, but of such as constantly 
occur, where his consulting them is a thing 
which may be expected, but is not due. 

In seeking for a friend to advise you, look 
for uprightness in him, rather than for inge- 
nuity. It frequently happens that all you 
want is moral strength. You can discern 
consequences well enough, but cannot make 
up your mind to bear them. Let your Men- 
tor also be a person of nice conscience, for 
such a one is less likely to fall into that error 
to which we are all so liable, of advising our 



ADVICE. 57 

friends to act with less forbearance, and with 
less generosity, than we should be inclined 
to show ourselves, if the case were our own. 
c If I were you' is a phrase often on our 
lips ; but we take good care not to disturb 
our identity, nor to quit the disengaged posi- 
tion of a bystander. We recommend the 
course we might pursue if we were acting for 
you in your absence, but such as you never 
ought to undertake in your own behalf. 

Besides being careful for your own sake 
about the persons whom you go to for advice, 
you should be careful also for theirs. It is 
an act of selfishness unnecessarily to consult 
those who are likely to feel a peculiar diffi- 
culty or delicacy in being your advisers, and 
who, perhaps, had better not be informed at 
all about the matter. 



SECRECY. 

FOR once that secrecy is formally imposed 
upon you, it is implied a hundred 
times by the concurrent circumstances. All 
that your friend says to you, as to his friend, 
is entrusted to you only. Much of what 
a man tells you in the hour of affliction, in 
sudden anger, or in any outpouring of his 
heart, should be sacred. In his craving for 
sympathy, he has spoken to you as to his 
own soul. 

To repeat what you have heard in social 
intercourse is sometimes a sad treachery; 
and when it is not treacherous, it is often 
foolish. For you commonly relate but a part 
of what has happened, and even if you are 
able to relate that part with fairness, it is 
still as likely to be misconstrued as a word 
of many meanings, in a foreign tongue, with- 
out the context. 

f There are few conversations which do not 
imply some degree of mutual confidence, how- 
ever slight. \ And in addition to that which 

J 



SECRECY. 59 

is said in confidence, there is generally some- 
thing which is peculiar, though not con- 
fidential ; which is addressed to the present 
company alone, though not confided to their 
secrecy. It is meant for them, or for per- 
sons like them, and they are expected to 
understand it rightly. So that when a man 
has no scruple in repeating all that he hears 
to anybody that he meets, he pays but a poor 
compliment to himself; for he seems to take 
it for granted that what was said in his 
presence, would have been said, in the same 
words, at any time, aloud, and in the market- 
place. In short, that he is the average man 
of mankind : which I doubt much whether 
any man would like to consider himself. 

On the other hand, there is an habitual 
and unmeaning reserve in some men, which 
makes secrets without any occasion ; and it 
is the least to say of such things that they 
are needless. Sometimes it proceeds from 
an innate shyness or timidity of disposition ; 
sometimes from a temper naturally suspi- 
cious ; or it may be the result of having 
been frequently betrayed or oppressed. From 
whatever cause it comes, it is a failing. As 
cunning is some men's strength, so this sort 
of reserve is some men's prudence. The 



/ 



60 SECRECY. 

man who does not know when, or how much, 
or to whom to confide, will do well in main- 
taining a Pythagorean silence. It is his best 
course. I would not have him change it on 
any account ; I only wish him not to mistake 
it for wisdom. 

That happy union of frankness and reserve 
which is to be desired, comes not by studying 
rules, either for candour or for caution. It 
results chiefly from an uprightness of purpose 
enlightened by a profound and delicate care 
for the feelings of others. This will go very 
far in teaching us what to confide, and what 
to conceal, in our own affairs ; what to repeat, 
and what to suppress, in those of other 
people. The stone in which nothing is seen, 
and the polished metal which reflects all 
things, are both alike hard and insensible. 

When a matter is made public, to proclaim 
that it had ever been confided to your secrecy 
may be no trifling breach of confidence : and 
it is the only one which is then left for you 
to commit. 

"With respect to the kind of people to be 
trusted, it may be observed that grave proud 



SECKECY. 6 1 

men are very safe confidants : and that those \ 
persons, who have ever had to conduct any 
business in which secrecy was essential, are 
likely to acquire a habit of reserve for all 
occasions. 

On the other hand, it is a question whether 
a secret will escape sooner by means of a vain 
man, or a simpleton. /There are some people 
who play with a secret, until at last it is sug- 
gested by their manner to some shrewd person 
who knows a little of the circumstances con- 
nected with it./ There are others whom it is 
unsafe to trust : not that they are vain, and 
so wear the secret as an ornament ; not that 
they are foolish, and so let it drop by acci- 
dent ; not that they are treacherous, and sell 
it for their own advantage. But they are 
simple-minded people, with whom the world 
has gone smoothly, who would not them- 
selves make any mischief of the secret which 
they disclose, and therefore do not see what 
harm can come of telling it. 

Before you make any confidence, you should 
consider whether the thing you wish to con- 
fide is of weight enough to be a secret. Your 
small secrets require the greatest care. Most 
persons suppose that they have kept them 



62 SECRECY. 

sufficiently when they have been silent about 
them for a certain time ; and this is hardly to 
be wondered at, if there is nothing in their 
nature to remind a person that they were 
told to him as secrets. 

There is sometimes a good reason for using 
concealment even with your dearest friends. 
It is that you may be less liable to be re- 
minded of your anxieties when you have 
resolved to put them aside. Few persons 
have tact enough to perceive when to be 
silent, and when to offer you counsel or con- 
dolence. 

You should be careful not to entrust another 
unnecessarily with a secret which it may be a 
hard matter for him to keep, and which may 
expose him to somebody's displeasure, when 
it is hereafter discovered that he was the object 
of your confidence. \ Your desire for aid, or for 
sympathy, is not to be indulged by dragging 
other people into your misfortunes. 

There is as much responsibility in imparting 
your own secrets, as in keeping those of your 
neighbour. 



THE SECOND PART. 



r The wisdom touching negotiation or business hath not been 
hitherto collected into writing, to the great derogation of learning, 
and the professors of learning. For from this root springeth 
chiefly that note or opinion, which by us is expressed in adage to 
this effect, ' that there is no great concurrence between learning 
and wisdom/ For of the three wisdoms which we have set down 
to pertain to civil life, for wisdom of behaviour, it is by learned 
men for the most part despised, as an inferior to virtue, and an 
enemy to meditation; for wisdom of government, they acquit 
themselves well when they are called to it, but that happeneth to 
few; but for the wisdom of business, wherein man's life is most 
conversant, there be no books of it, except some few scattered 
advertisements, that have no proportion to the magnitude of this 
subject. For if books were written of this, as the other, I doubt 
not but learned men with mean experience would far excel men of 
long experience without learning, and outshoot them in their own 
bow/ — Bacon's Advancement of Learning. 



ON THE EDUCATION OF A MAN 
OF BUSINESS, 

THE essential qualities for a man of busi- 
ness are of a moral nature : these are to 
be cultivated first. He must learn betimes 
to love truth. That same love of truth will 
be found a potent charm to bear him safely- 
through the world's entanglements — I mean 
safely in the most worldly sense. Besides, 
the love of truth not only makes a man act 
with more simplicity, and therefore with less 
chance of error; but it conduces to the highest 
intellectual development. The following pas- 
sage in The Statesman gives the reason. c The 
correspondencies of wisdom and goodness are 
manifold ; and that they will accompany each 
other is to be inferred, not only because men's 
wisdom makes them good, but also because 
their goodness makes them wise. Questions 
of right and wrong are a perpetual exercise 
of the faculties of those who are solicitous as 
to the right and wrong of what they do and 
see ; and a deep interest of the heart in these 
questions carries with it a deeper cultivation 



66 ON THE EDUCATION OF 

of the understanding than can be easily effected 
by any other excitement to intellectual ac- 
tivity/ 

What has just been said of the love of truth 
applies also to other moral qualities. Thus, 
charity enlightens the understanding quite as 
much as it purifies the heart. And indeed 
knowledge is not more girt about with power 
than goodness is with wisdom. 

The next thing in the training of one who 
is to become a man of business will be for 
him to form principles ; for without these, 
when thrown on the sea of action, he will be 
without rudder and compass. They are the 
best results of study. Whether it is history, 
or political economy, or ethics, that he is 
studying, these principles are to be the re- 
ward of his labour. A principle resembles 
a law in the physical world; though it can 
seldom have the same certainty, as the facts, 
which it has to explain and embrace, do not 
admit of being weighed or numbered with the 
same exactness as material things. The prin- 
ciples which our student adopts at first may 
be unsound, may be insufficient, but he must 
not neglect to form some; and must only 
nourish a love of truth that will not allow 



A MAN OF BUSINESS. 67 

him to hold to any, the moment that he 
finds them to be erroneous. 

Much depends upon the temperament of a 
man of business. It should be hopeful, that 
it may bear him up against the fainthearted- 
ness, the folly, the falsehood, and the num- 
berless discouragements which even a pros- 
perous man will have to endure. It should 
also be calm ; for else he may be driven wild 
by any great pressure of business, and lose 
his time, and his head, in rushing from one 
unfinished thing, to begin something else. 
Now this wished-for conjunction of the calm 
and the hopeful is very rare. It is, however, 
in every man's power to study well his own 
temperament, and to provide against the 
defects in it. 

A habit of thinking for himself is one which 
may be acquired by the solitary student. 
But the habit of deciding for himself, so in- 
dispensable to a man of business, is not to be 
gained by study. Decision is a thing that 
cannot be fully exercised until it is actually 
wanted. You cannot play at deciding. You 
must have realities to deal with. 

It is true that the formation of principles, 

F 2, 



68 ON THE EDUCATION OF 

which has been spoken of before, requires 
decision ; but it is of that kind which depends 
upon deliberate judgment : whereas, the de- 
cision which is wanted in the world's business 
must ever be within call, and does not judge 
so much as it foresees and chooses. This 
kind of decision is to be found in those who 
have been thrown early on their own re- 
sources, or who have been brought up in 
great freedom. 

It would be difficult to lay down any course 
of study, not technical, that would be pecu- 
liarly fitted to form a man of business. He 
should be brought up in the habit of reason- 
ing closely : and to ensure this, there is 
hardly anything better for him than the 
study of geometry. 

In any course of study to be laid down for 
him, something like universality should be 
aimed at, which not only makes the mind 
agile, but gives variety of information. Such 
a system will make him acquainted with many 
modes of thought, with various classes of 
facts, and will enable him to understand men 
better. 

There will be a time in his youth which 
may, perhaps, be well spent in those studies 



A MAN OF BUSINESS. 69 

which are of a metaphysical nature. In the 
investigation of some of the great questions 
of philosophy, a breadth and a tone may be 
given to a man's mode of thinking, which 
will afterwards be of signal use to him in the 
business of e very-day life. 

We cannot enter here into a description of 
the technical studies for a man of business ; 
but I may point out that there are works 
which soften the transition from the schools to 
the world, and which are particularly needed 
in a system of education, like our own, con- 
sisting of studies for the most part remote 
from real life. These works are such as tend 
to give the student that interest in the com- 
mon things about him, which he has scarcely 
ever been called upon to feel. They show how 
imagination and philosophy can be woven 
into practical wisdom. Such are the writings 
of Bacon. His lucid order, his grasp of the 
subject, the comprehensiveness of his views, 
his knowledge of mankind, the greatest 
perhaps that has ever been distinctly given 
out by any uninspired man, the practical 
nature of his purposes, and his respect for 
anything of human interest, render Bacon's 
works unrivalled in their fitness to form the 



70 ON THE EDUCATION OF 

best men for the conduct of the highest 
affairs. 

It is not, however, so much the thing 
studied, as the manner of studying it. Our 
student is not intended to become a learned 
man, but a man of business ; not a c full 
man/ but a ' ready man/ He must be 
taught to arrange and express what he knows. 
For this purpose let him employ himself in 
making digests, arranging and classifying 
materials, writing narratives, and in deciding 
upon conflicting evidence. All these exer- 
cises require method. He must expect that 
his early attempts will be clumsy ; he begins, 
perhaps, by dividing his subject in any way 
that occurs to him, with no other view than 
that of treating separate portions of it sepa- 
rately; he does not perceive, at first, what 
things are of one kind, and what of another, 
and what should be the logical order of their 
following. But from such rude beginnings, 
method is developed ; and there is hardly any 
degree of toil for which he would not be com- 
pensated by such a result. He will have a 
sure reward in the clearness of his own views, 
and in the facility of explaining them to 
others. People bring their attention to the 
man who gives them most profit for it; 



A MAN OF BUSINESS. 7 1 

and this will be one who is a master of 
method. 

Our student should begin soon to cultivate 
a fluency in writing — I do not mean a flow of 
words, but a habit of expressing his thoughts 
with accuracy, with brevity, and with readi- 
ness ; which can only be acquired by practice 
early in life. You find persons who, from 
neglect in this part of their education, can 
express themselves briefly and accurately, 
but only after much care and labour. And 
again, you meet with others who cannot ex- 
press themselves accurately, although they 
have method in their thoughts, and can write 
with readiness ; but they have not been ac- 
customed to look to the precise meaning of 
words : and such people are apt to fall into 
the common error of indulging in a great many 
words, as if it were from a sort of hope that 
some of them might be to the purpose. 

In the style of a man of business nothing 
is to be aimed at but plainness and precision. 
For instance, a close repetition of the same 
word for the same thing need not be avoided. 
The aversion to such repetitions may be 
carried too far in all kinds of writing. In 
literature, however, you are seldom brought 



72 ON THE EDUCATION OF 

to account for misleading people; but in 
business you may soon be called upon to pay 
the penalty for having shunned the word 
which would exactly have expressed your 
meaning. 

I cannot conclude this essay better than 
by endeavouring to describe what sort of 
person a consummate man of business should 
be. 

He should be able to fix his attention on 
details, and be ready to give every kind of 
argument a hearing. This will not encumber 
him, for he must have been practised before, 
hand in the exercise of his intellect, and be 
strong in principles. One man collects ma- 
terials together, and there they remain, a 
shapeless heap ; another, possessed of method, 
can arrange what he has collected ; but such 
a man as I would describe, by the aid of 
principles, goes farther, and builds with his 
materials. 

He should be courageous. The courage, 
however, required in civil affairs, is that 
which belongs rather to the able commander 
than the mere soldier. But any kind of cou- 
rage is serviceable. 

Besides a stout heart, he should have a 
patient temperament, and a vigorous but dis- 



A MAN OF BUSINESS. 73 

ciplined imagination ; and then lie will plan 
boldly, and with large extent of view, execute 
calmly, and not be stretching out his hand 
for things not yet within his grasp. He will 
let opportunities grow before his eyes until 
they are ripe to be seized. He will think 
steadily over possible failure, in order to pro- 
vide a remedy or a retreat. There will be the 
strength of repose about him. 

He must have a deep sense of responsi- 
bility. He must believe in the power and 
vitality of truth, and in all he does or says, 
should be anxious to express as much truth 
as possible. 

His feeling of responsibility and love of 
truth will almost inevitably endow him with 
diligence, accuracy, and discreetness, — those 
common-place requisites for a good man of 
business, without which all the rest may never 
come to be c translated into action/ 



ON THE TRANSACTION OF 

BUSINESS. 

THIS subject may be divided into two parts, 
i. Dealing with others about business. 
2. Dealing with the business itself. 

i. Dealing with others about Business. 

The first part of the general subject em- 
braces the choice and management of agents, 
the transaction of business by means of inter- 
views, the choice of colleagues and the use of 
councils. Each of these topics will be treated 
separately. There remain, however, certain 
general rules with respect to our dealings 
with others which may naturally find a place 
here. 

In your converse with the world avoid any- 
thing like a juggling dexterity. The proper 
use of dexterity is to prevent your being 
circumvented by the cunning of others. It 
should not be aggressive. 

Concessions and compromises form a large 
and a very important part of our dealings 



TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 75 

with others. Concessions must generally be 
looked upon as distinct defeats; and you 
must expect no gratitude for them. I am 
far from saying that it may not be wise to 
make concessions, but this will be done more 
wisely when you understand the nature of 
them. 

In making compromises, do not think to 
gain much by concealing your views and 
wishes. You are as likely to suffer from its 
not being known how to please or satisfy 
you, as from any attempt to overreach you, 
grounded on a knowledge of your wishes. 

Delay is in some instances to be adopted 
advisedly. It sometimes brings a person to 
reason when nothing else could; when his 
mind is so occupied with one idea, that he 
completely over-estimates its relative import- 
ance. He can hardly be brought to look at 
the subject calmly by any force of reasoning. 
For this disease time is the only doctor. 

A good man of business is very watchful, 
over both himself and others, to prevent things 
from being carried against his sense of right 
in moments of lassitude. After a matter has 
been much discussed, whether to the purpose 



76 ON THE TRANSACTION 

or not, there comes a time when all parties 
are anxious that it should be settled; and 
there is then some danger of the handiest 
way of getting rid of the matter being taken 
for the best. 

It is often worth while to bestow much 
pains in gaining over foolish people to your 
way of thinking: and you should do it soon. 
Your reasons will always have some weight 
with the wise. But if at first you omit to put 
your arguments before the foolish , they will 
form their prejudices ; and a fool is often very 
consistent, and very fond of repetition. He 
will be repeating his folly in season, and out 
of season, until at last it has a hearing ; and 
it is hard if it does not sometimes chime in 
with external circumstances. 

A man of business should take care to 
consult occasionally with persons of a nature 
quite different from his own. To very few 
are given all the qualities requisite to form a 
good man of business. Thus a man may have 
the sternness and the fixedness of purpose so 
necessary in the conduct of affairs, yet these 
qualities prevent him, perhaps, from entering 
into the characters of those about him. He 



OF BUSINESS. 77 

is likely to want tact. He will be unprepared 
for the extent of versatility and vacillation in 
other men. But these defects and oversights 
might be remedied by consulting with persons 
whom he knows to be possessed of the quali- 
ties supplementary to his own. Men of much 
depth of mind can bear a great deal of coun- 
sel ; for it does not easily deface their own cha- 
racter, nor render their purposes indistinct. 

%. Dealing with the Business itself. 

The first thing to be considered in this 
division of the subject is the collection and 
arrangement of your materials. Do not fail 
to begin with the earliest history of the matter 
under consideration. Be careful not to give 
way to any particular theory, while you are 
merely collecting materials, lest it should in- 
fluence you in the choice of them. You must 
work for yourself; for what you reject may 
be as important for you to have seen and 
thought about, as w x hat you adopt : besides, 
it gives you a command of the subject, and a 
comparative fearlessness of surprise, which 
you will never have, if you rely on other 
people for your materials. In some cases, 
however, you may save time by not labouring 
much, beforehand, at parts of the subject 



78 ON THE TRANSACTION 

which are nearly sure to be worked out in 
discussion. 

When you have collected and arranged 
your information, there comes the task of de- 
ciding upon it. To make this less difficult, 
you must use method, and practise economy 
in thinking. You must not weary yourself 
by considering the same thing in the same 
way; just oscillating over it, as it were; sel- 
dom making much progress, and not mark- 
ing the little that you have made. You must 
not lose your attention in reveries about the 
subject; but must bring yourself to the point 
by such questions as these, What has been 
done ? What is the state of the case at pre- 
sent ? What can be done next? What ought 
to be done? Express in writing the answers 
to your questions. Use the pen — there is no 
magic in it, but it prevents the mind from 
staggering about. It forces you to methodize 
your thoughts. It enables you to survey the 
matter with a less tired eye. Whereas in 
thinking vaguely, you not only lose time, but 
you acquire a familiarity with the husk of the 
subject, which is absolutely injurious. Your 
apprehension becomes dull; you establish 
associations of ideas which occur again and 



OF BUSINESS. 79 

again to distract your attention; and you 
become more tired, than if you had really 
been employed in mastering the subject. 

"When you have arrived at your decision, 
you have to consider how you shall convey it. 
In doing this, be sure that you very rarely, if 
ever, say anything which is not immediately 
relevant to the subject. Beware of indulging 
in maxims, in abstract propositions, or in 
anything of that kind. Let your subject fill 
the whole of what you say. Human affairs 
are so wide, subtle, and complicated, that 
the most sagacious man had better content 
himself with pronouncing upon those points 
alone upon which his decision is called for. 

It will often be a nice question whether or 
not to state the motives for your decisions. 
Much will depend upon the nature of the 
subject, upon the party whom you have to 
address, and upon your power of speaking 
out the whole truth. When you can give all 
your motives, it will in most cases be just to 
others, and eventually good for yourself, to 
do so. If you can only state some of them, 
then you must consider whether they are 
likely to mislead, or whether they tend to the 
full truth. And for your own sake there is 
this to be considered in giving only a part of 



8o ON THE TRANSACTION 

your reasons : that those which you give are 
generally taken to be the whole, or at any 
rate, the best that you have. And, hereafter, 
you may find yourself precluded from using 
an argument which turns out to be a very 
sound one, which had great weight with you, 
but which you were at the time unwilling, or 
did not think it necessary, to put forward. 

When you have to communicate the mo- 
tives for an unfavourable decision, you will 
naturally study how to convey them so as to 
give least pain, and to ensure least discus- 
sion. These are not unworthy objects ; but 
they are immediate ones, and therefore likely 
to have their full weight with you. Beware 
that your anxiety to attain them does not 
carry you into an implied falsehood; for, to 
say the least of it, evil is latent in that. Each 
day's converse with the world ought to con- 
firm us in the maxim that a bold but not un- 
kind sincerity should be the groundwork of 
all our dealings. 

It will often be necessary to make a general 
statement respecting the history of some busi- 
ness. It should be lucid, yet not overbur- 
dened with details. It must have method not 
merely running through it, but visible upon 



OF BUSINESS. 8 1 

it — it must have method in its form. You 
must build it up, beginning* at the beginning, 
giving each part its due weight, and not hur- 
rying over those steps which happen to be 
peculiarly familiar to yourself. You must 
thoroughly enter into the ignorance of others, 
and so avoid forestalling your conclusions. 
The best teachers are those who can seem to 
forget what they know full well ; who work 
out results, which have become axioms in 
their minds, with all the interest of a be- 
ginner, and with footsteps no longer than 
his. 

It is a good practice to draw up, and put 
on record, an abstract of the reasons upon 
which you have come to a decision on any 
complicated subject; so that if it is referred 
to, there is but little labour in making your- 
self master of it again. Of course this prac- 
tice will be more or less necessary, according 
as your decision has been conveyed with a 
reserved or with a full statement of the rea- 
sons upon which it was grounded. 

Of all the correspondence you receive, a 
concise record should be kept ; which should 
also contain a note of what w^as done upon 
any letter, and of where it was sent to, or 

G 



82 TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 

put away. Documents relating to the same 
subject should be carefully brought together. 
You should endeavour to establish such a 
system of arranging your papers, as may 
ensure their being readily referred to, and 
yet not require too much time and attention 
to be carried into daily practice. Fac-similes 
should be kept of all the letters which you 
send out. 

These seem little things : and so they are, 
unless you neglect them. 



ON THE CHOICE AND MANAGE- 
MENT OF AGENTS. 

THE choice of agents is a difficult matter, 
but any labour that you may bestow 
upon it, is likely to be well repaid : for you 
have to choose persons for whose faults you 
are to be punished; to whom you are to be 
the whipping-boy. 

In the choice of an agent, it is not sufficient 
to ascertain what a man knows, or to make a 
catalogue of his qualities; but you have to find 
out how he will perform a particular service. 
You may be right in concluding that such an 
office requires certain qualities, and you may 
discern that such a man possesses most of 
them ; and in the absence of any means of 
making a closer trial, you may have done the 
best that you could do. But some deficiency, 
or some untoward combination of these qua- 
lities, may unfit him for the office. Hence 
the value of any opportunity, however slight, 
of observing his conduct in matters similar to 
those for which you want him. 



84 ON THE CHOICE AND 

Our previous knowledge of men will some- 
times mislead us entirely, even when we apply 
it to circumstances but little different, as we 
think, from those in which we have actually 
observed their behaviour. For instance, you 
might naturally imagine that a man who 
shows an irritable temper in his conversation, 
is likely to show a similar temper throughout 
the conduct of his business. But experience 
does not confirm this ; for you will often find 
that men who are intemperate in speech are 
cautious in writing. 

The best agents are, in general, to be found 
amongst those persons who have a strong 
sense of responsibility. Under this feeling a 
man will be likely to grudge no pains ; he 
will pay attention to minute things; and 
what is of much importance, he will prefer 
being considered ever so stupid, rather than 
pretend to understand his orders before he 
does so. 

You should behave to your subordinate 
agents in such a manner, that they should 
not be afraid to be frank with you. They 
should be able to comment freely upon your 
directions, and may thus become your best 



MANAGEMENT OF AGENTS. 85 

counsellors. For those who are entrusted 
with the execution of any work, are likely to 
see things which have been overlooked by the 
person who designed it, however sagacious he 
may be. 

You must not interfere unnecessarily with 
your agents, as it gives them the habit of 
leaning too much upon you. Sir Walter 
Scott says of Canning, ' I fear he works 
himself too hard, under the great error of 
trying to do too much with his own hand, 
and to see everything with his own eyes* 
Whereas the greatest general and the first 
statesman must, in many cases, be content to 
use the eyes and fingers of others, and 
hold themselves contented with the exercise 
of the greatest care in the choice of imple- 
ments/ Most men of vigorous minds and 
nice perceptions will be apt to interfere too 
much; but it should always be one of the 
chief objects of a person in authority to train 
up those around him to do without him. He 
should try to give them some self-reliance. 
It should be his aim to create a standard as 
to the way in which things are to be done — 
not to do them all himself. That standard is 
likely to be maintained for some time, in case 



86 ON THE CHOICE AND 

of his absence, illness, or death ; and it will 
be applied daily to many things that must be 
done without a careful inspection on his part, 
even when he is in full vigour. 

"With respect to those agents whom you 
employ to represent you, your inclination 
should be to treat them with hearty con- 
fidence. In justice to them, as well as for 
your own sake, the limits which you lay down 
for their guidance, should be precise. Within 
those limits you should allow them a large 
discretionary power. You must be careful 
not to blame your agent for departing from 
your orders, when in fact the discrepancy 
which you notice is nothing more than the 
usual difference in the ways in which different 
men set about the same object, even when 
they employ similar means for its accomplish- 
ment. For a difference of this kind you should 
have been prepared. But if you are in haste 
to blame your representative, your captious- 
ness may throw a great burden upon him 
unnecessarily. It is not the success of the 
undertaking only that he will thenceforward 
be intent upon : he will be anxious that 
each step should be done exactly after your 



MANAGEMENT OF AGENTS. 87 

fancy. And this may embarrass him, render 
him indecisive, and lead to his failing alto- 
gether. 

The surest way to make agents do their 
work is to show them that their efforts are 
appreciated with nicety. For this purpose, 
you should not only be very careful in your 
promotions and rewards; but in your daily 
dealings with them, you should beware of 
making slight or hap-hazard criticisms on any 
of their proceedings. Your praise should not 
only be right in the substance, but put upon 
the right foundation : it should point to their 
most strenuous and most judicious exertion. 
I do not mean that it should always be given 
at the time of those exertions being made, 
but it should show that they had not passed 
by unnoticed. 



ON THE TREATMENT OF 
SUITORS. 

THE maxim, 'Pars beneficii est, quod petitur 
si bene neges/ is misinterpreted by many 
people. They construe c bene' kindly, which 
is right : but they are inclined to fancy that 
this kindness consists in courtesy, rather than 
in explicitness and truth. 

You should be very loth to encourage ex- 
pectations in a suitor, which you have not 
then the power of fulfilling, or of putting in 
a course of fulfilment ; — for Hope, an archi- 
tect above rules, can build, in reverse, a 
pyramid upon a point. From a very little 
origin there often arises a wildness of expec- 
tation which quite astounds you. Like the 
Fisherman in the Arabian Nights, when you 
see i a genie twice as high as the greatest of 
giants/ you may well wonder how he could 
have come out of so small a vessel ; but in 
your case, there will be no chance of per- 
suading the monster to ensconce himself 
again, for the purpose of convincing you that 
such a feat is not impossible. 



TREATMENT OE SUITORS. 89 

In addition also to the natural delusions of 
hope, there is sometimes the artifice of pre- 
tending to take your words for more than they 
are well known to mean. 

There is a deafness peculiar to suitors; 
they should therefore be answered as much 
as possible in writing. The answers should 
be expressed in simple terms; and all phrases 
should be avoided which are not likely to con- 
vey a clear idea to the man who hears them 
for the first time. There are many persons 
who really do not understand forms of writing 
which may have become common to you. 
When they find that courteous expressions 
mean nothing, they think that a wilful decep- 
tion has been practised upon them. And in 
general, you should consider that people will 
naturally put the largest construction upon 
every ambiguous expression, and every term 
of courtesy which can be made to express 
anything at all in their favour. 

It will often be necessary to see applicants; 
and in this case you must bear in mind that 
you have not only the delusions of hope and 
the misinterpretation of language to contend 
against, but also the imperfection of men's 
memories. If possible, therefore, do not let 



90 ON THE TREATMENT 

the interview be the termination of the mat- 
ter : let it lead to something in writings so 
that you may have an opportunity of recording 
what you wished to express. Avoid a pro- 
mising manner ; as people will be apt to find 
words for it. Do not resort to evasive answers 
for the purpose only of bringing the inter- 
view to a close; nor shrink from giving a 
distinct denial, merely because the person to 
whom you ought to give it is before you, and 
you would have to witness any pain which it 
might occasion. Let not that balance of 
justice which Corruption could not alter one 
hair's breadth, be altogether disturbed by 
Sensibility. 

To determine in what cases the refusal of 
a suit should be accompanied by reasons, is 
a matter of considerable difficulty. It must 
depend very much on what portion of the 
truth you are able to bring forward. This 
was mentioned before as a general principle, 
in the transaction of business, and it may be 
well to abide by it in answering applications. 
You will naturally endeavour to give some- 
what of a detailed explanation when you are 
desirous of showing respect to the person 
whom you are addressing ; but if the expla- 
nation is not a sound or a complete one, it 



OF SUITORS. 91 

would be better to see whether the respect 
could not be shown in some other way. 

In many cases, and especially when the 
suit is a mere project of effrontery, it will 
perhaps be prudent to refuse, without enter- 
ing at all upon the grounds of your refusal. 
In an explanation addressed to the applicant, 
you will be apt to omit the special reasons 
for your refusal, as they are likely to be such 
as would mortify his self-love ; and so you 
lay yourself open to an accusation of unfair- 
ness, when he finds, perhaps, that you have 
selected some other person, who came as 
fully within the scope of your general objec- 
tions, as he did himself. Therefore, where 
you are not required, and do not like, to give 
special reasons, it may often be the best course 
simply to refuse, or to couch your refusal in 
impregnable generalities. 

Remember that in giving any reason at all 
for refusing, you lay some foundation for a 
future request. 

Those who have constantly to deal with 
suitors are in danger of giving way too much 
to disgust at the intrusion, importunity, and 
egotism, which they meet with. As an anti- 
dote to this, they should remember that the 



92 TREATMENT OF SUITORS. 

suit which is a matter of business to them, 
and which, perhaps, from its hopelessness, 
they look upon with little interest, seems to 
the suitor himself a thing of absorbing im- 
portance. And they should expect a man in 
distress to be as unreasonable as a sick per- 
son, and as much occupied by his own dis- 
order. 



INTERVIEWS. 

THERE is much that cannot be done with- 
out interviews. It would often require 
great labour, not only on your part, but also 
on the part of others whom you cannot com- 
mand, to effect by means of writing what 
may easily be accomplished in a single inter- 
view. The pen may be a surer, but the tongue 
is a nicer instrument. In talking, most men 
sooner or later show what is uppermost in 
their minds ; and this gives a peculiar interest 
to verbal communications. Besides, there are 
looks, and tones, and gestures, which form a 
significant language of their own. In short, 
interviews may be made very useful ; and are, 
in general, somewhat hazardous things : but 
many people look upon them rather as the 
pastime of business, than as a part of it 
requiring great discretion. 

Interviews are perhaps of most value when 
they bring together several conflicting in- 
terests, or opinions, each of which has thus an 
opportunity of ascertaining the amount and 



94 INTERVIEWS. 

variety of opposition which it must expect, 
and so is worn into moderation. It would 
take a great deal of writing to effect this. 

Interviews are to be resorted to when you 
wish to prevent the other party from pledging 
himself upon a matter which requires much 
explanation; where you see what will pro- 
bably be his answer to your first proposition, 
and know that you have a good rejoinder, 
which you would wish him to hear before he 
commits himself by writing upon the subject. 
In cases of this kind, however, there is the 
similar danger of a man's talking himself into 
obstinacy before he has heard all that you 
have to say. 

Interviews are very serviceable in those 
matters where you would at once be able to 
come to a decision, if you did but know the 
real inclination of the other parties con- 
cerned : and, in general, you should take 
care occasionally to see those with whom you 
are dealing, if the thing in question is likely 
to be much influenced by their individual 
peculiarities, and you require a knowledge 
of the men. Now this is the case with the 
greatest part of human affairs. 

You frequently want verbal communication 
in order to encourage the timid, to settle the 



INTERVIEWS. 95 

undecided, and to bring on some definite 
stage in the proceedings. 

The above are instances in which inter- 
views are to be sought for on their own ac- 
count; but they are sometimes necessary, 
merely because people will not be satisfied 
without them. There are persons who can 
hardly believe that their arguments have been 
attended to, until they have had verbal evi- 
dence of the fact. They think that they could 
easily answer all your objections, and that 
they should certainly succeed in persuading 
you, if they had an opportunity of discussing 
the matter orally : and it may be of import- 
ance to remove this delusion by an interview. 

On the other hand interviews are to be 
avoided, when you have reasons which deter- 
mine your mind, but which you cannot give 
to the other party. If you do accede to an 
interview, you are almost certain to be 
tempted into giving some reasons, and these 
not being the strong ones, will very likely 
admit of a fair answer ; and so, after much 
shuffling, you will be obliged to resort to an 
appearance of mere wilfulness at last. 

You should also be averse to transacting 
business verbally, with very eager, sanguine 



g6 INTERVIEWS. 

persons, unless you feel that you have suf- 
ficient force and readiness for it. There are 
people who do not understand any dissent or 
opposition on your part, unless it is made 
very manifest. They are fully prepossessed by 
their own views, and they go on talking as if 
you agreed with them. Perhaps you feel a 
delicacy in interrupting them, and undeceiv- 
ing them at once. The time for doing so 
passes by; and ever afterwards they quote 
you as an authority for all their folly. Or it 
ends by your going away pledged to a course 
of conduct which is anything but what you 
approve. 

But perhaps there are no interviews less to 
be sought after than those in which you have 
to appear in connexion with one or two other 
parties who have exactly the same interest in 
the matter as your own, and must be sup- 
posed to speak your sentiments, but with 
whom you have had little or no previous 
communication ; or whose judgment you find 
that you cannot rely upon. In such a case 
you are continually in danger of being com- 
promised by the indiscretion of any one of 
your associates. For you do not like to dis- 
own one of your own side before the adverse 
party; or you are afraid of taking all the 



INTERVIEWS. 97 

odium of opposition on yourself. You may 
perhaps be quite certain that your indiscreet 
ally would be as anxious as yourself to recall 
his words if he could perceive their conse- 
quences : but these are things which you 
cannot explain to him in that company. 

The men who profit least by interviews are 
often those who are most inclined to resort to 
them. They are irresolute persons, who wish 
to avoid pledging themselves to anything, 
and so they choose an interview as the safest 
course which occurs to them. Besides it 
looks like progress : and makes them, as they 
say, see their way. Such persons, however, 
are very soon entangled in their own words, 
or they are oppressed by the earnest opinions 
of the people they meet. For to conduct an 
interview in the manner which they intend, 
would require them to have at command that 
courage and decision, which they never attain, 
without a long and miserly weighing of con- 
sequences. 

Indolent persons are very apt to resort to 
interviews; for it saves them the trouble of 
thinking steadily, and of expressing them- 
selves with precision, which they are called 
upon to do, if they come to write about the 

H 



98 INTERVIEWS. 

subject. Now they certainly may learn a great 
deal in a short time, and with very little 
trouble, by means of an interview : but if 
they have to take up the position of an an- 
tagonist, of a judge, or indeed any but that of 
a learner, then it is very unsafe to indulge in 
an interview, without having prepared them- 
selves for it. 

To conduct an interview successfully, re- 
quires not only information and force of 
character, but also a certain intellectual rea- 
diness. People are so apt to think that there 
are but two ways in which a thing can ter- 
minate. They are ignorant of the number of 
combinations which even a few circumstances 
will admit of. And perhaps a proposal is 
made which they are totally unprepared for, 
and which they cannot deal with, from being 
unable to apprehend with sufficient quickness 
its main drift and consequences. 

There are cases where the persons meeting 
are upon no terms of equality respecting the 
interview; where one of them has a great 
deal to maintain, and the other nothing to 
lose. Such an instance occurs in the case of 
a minister receiving a deputation. He has 
the interests of the public to maintain, and 



INTERVIEWS. 99 

the intentions of the government to keep 
concealed. He has to show that he fully 
understands the arguments laid before him ; 
and all the while to conceal his own bias, 
and to keep himself perfectly free from any 
pledge. Any member of the deputation may 
utter any thing that he pleases without much 
harm coming of it ; but every word that the 
minister says is liable to be interpreted against 
him to the uttermost. There are similar oc- 
casions in private life, where a man has to 
act upon the defensive, and where the inter- 
view may be considered not as a battle, but 
as a siege. A man should then confine him- 
self to few words. He should bring forward 
his strongest arguments only, and not state 
too many of them at a time ; for he should 
keep a good force in reserve. Besides it will 
be much more difficult for the other party to 
mystify and pervert a few arguments than a set 
speech. And he will leave them no room for 
gaining a semblance of victory by answering 
the unimportant parts of his statement. 

Again, whatever readiness and knowledge 
of the subject he may possess, he should have 
somebody by him on his side. For he is 
opposed to numbers, and must expect that 
amongst them there will always be some one 

h % 



IOO INTERVIEWS. 

ready to meet his arguments, if not with argu- 
ment, at any rate with the proper fallacies ; 
or at least that there will be some one stupid 
enough to commence replying without an 
answer. He should therefore have a person 
who should be able to aid him in replying ; 
and there will be a satisfaction in having 
somebody in the room who is not in a hostile 
position towards him. Besides he will want 
a witness : for he must not imagine that the 
number of his opponents is any safeguard 
against misrepresentation, but rather a cause, 
in most people, of less attention, and less 
feeling of responsibility. And lastly, the most 
precise man in the world, if he speaks much 
on any matter, may be glad to hear what was 
the impression upon another person's mind : 
in short, to see whether he conveyed exactly 
what he meant to convey. 

The best precaution, however, which any 
man can take under these circumstances, is 
to state in writing, at the conclusion of the 
interview, the substance of what he appre- 
hends to have been said, and of what he 
intends to do. This would require great 
readiness and the most earnest attention ; but 
in the end, it would save very much trouble 
and misapprehension. A similar practice 



INTERVIEWS. lOI 

might be adopted in most interviews of busi- 
ness, where the subject would warrant such 
a formality. It would not only be good in 
itself, but its influence would be felt through- 
out the interview; and people would come 
prepared, and would speak with precision, 
when there was an immediate prospect of 
their statements being recorded. 



OP COUNCILS, COMMISSIONS, 

AND, IN GENERAL, OF BODIES 

OE MEN CALLED TOGETHER TO COUNSEL, 

OR TO DIRECT. 

SUCH bodies are the fly-wheels and safety- 
valves of the machinery of business. 
They are sometimes looked upon as super- 
fluities, but by their means the motion is 
equalised, and a great force is applied with 
little danger. 

They are apt contrivances for obtaining an 
average of opinions, for ensuring freedom 
from corruption, and the reputation of that 
freedom. On ordinary occasions they are 
more courageous than most individuals. They 
can bear odium better. The world seldom 
looks to personal character as the predomi- 
nating cause of any of their doings, though 
this is one of the first things which occurs to 
it when the public acts of any individual are 
in question. The very indistinctness which 
belongs to their corporate existence adds a 
certain weight to their decisions. 

Councils are serviceable as affording some 



COUNCILS AND COMMISSIONS. 103 

means of judging how things are likely to be 
generally received. It is seldom that any 
one person, however capable he may be of 
framing, or of executing a good measure, 
can come to a satisfactory conclusion as to 
the various appearances which that measure 
will present, or can be made to present, to 
others. In some instances he may be so little 
under the influence of the common prejudices 
around him, as not to understand their force, 
and therefore not to perceive how a new 
thing will be received. Now if he has the 
opportunity of consulting several persons to- 
gether, he will not only have the advantage 
of their common sense and joint information, 
but he will also have a chance of hearing 
what will be the common nonsense of ordinary 
men upon the subject, and of providing as far 
as possible against it. 

On the other hand, these bodies are much 
tempted by the division of responsibility to 
sloth ; and therefore to dealing with things 
superficially, and inaccurately. Another evil 
is the want of that continuity of purpose in 
their proceedings which is to be found in 
those of an individual. 

As it tends directly to diminish many of 
the advantages before mentioned, it is, in 



104 OF COUNCILS 

general, a wrong thing for a member of a 
Council or Commission to let the outer world 
know that his private opinion is adverse to 
any of the decisions of his colleagues ; or in- 
deed to indicate the part, whatever it may- 
have been, that he has taken in the trans- 
actions of the general body. 

The proper number of persons to constitute 
such bodies must vary according to the pur- 
pose for which they are called together. Such 
a number as would afford any temptation for 
oratorical display should in general be avoided. 
Another limit, which it may be prudent to 
adopt, is to have only so many members as 
to make it possible in most cases for each to 
take a part in the proceedings. By having 
a greater number, you will not ensure more 
scrutiny into the business. It will still be 
done by a few; but with a feeling of less 
responsibility than if they were left to them- 
selves, and with the interruptions and incon- 
venience arising from the number of persons 
present. Besides, the greater the number, 
the more likelihood there is of parties being 
formed in the Council. 

Whether the members are many or few, 
there should be formalities, strictly main- 



AND COMMISSIONS. 105 

tained. This is essential in the conduct of 
business. Otherwise there will be such a 
state of things as that described by Pepys in 
his account of a meeting of the privy council ; 
which, like most of his descriptions, one feels 
to be true to the life. ' We to a Committee 
of the Council to discourse concerning press- 
ing of men ; but Lord ! how they meet ; never 
sit down : one comes, now another goes, then 
comes another; one complaining that nothing 
is done, another swearing that he hath been 
there these two hours and nobody come. At 
last my Lord Annesley says, c I think we 
must be forced to get the King to come to 
every Committee ; for I do not see that we do 
any thing at any time but when he is here/ ' 
The great art of making use of councils, 
commissions, and such like bodies, is to know 
what kind of matter to put before them, and 
in what state to present it. ' There be three 
parts of business, the preparation ; the debate, 
or examination ; and the perfection ; whereof, 
if you look for dispatch, let the middle only 
be the work of many, and the first and last 
the work of few/* There is likely to be a 
great waste of time and labour when a thing 

* Bacon's Essay on Dispatch. 



Io6 OF COUNCILS 

is brought in all its first vagueness to be 
debated or examined by a number of persons. 
And there will be much in the ' preparation' 
and ' perfection' of a matter which will only- 
become confused by being submitted to a full 
assembly. You might as well think of making 
love by a council or a board. It should there- 
fore be the business of some one, either in the 
council, or subordinate to it, to bring the 
matter forward in a distinct and definite shape. 
Otherwise there will be a wilderness of things 
said before you arrive at any legitimate point 
of discussion. And hence Bacon adds, ' the 
proceeding upon somewhat conceived in 
writing doth for the most part facilitate 
dispatch : for though it should be wholly 
rejected, yet that negative is more pregnant 
of direction than an indefinite, as ashes are 
more generative than dust/ 

In order to bring the responsibility of any 
act of the general body home to the indivi- 
duals composing it, no method seems so good 
as that of requiring the signatures of a large 
proportion of the council or commission to 
the directions given in the matter. Even 
the most careless people have a sort of aver- 
sion to signing things which they have never 



AND COMMISSIONS. 107 

considered. This plan is better than requir- 
ing the signatures of the whole body. For 
it is less likely to degenerate into a mere 
formality : and besides, the other course would 
give any one crotchetty man too great a power 
of hinderance. 

The responsibility, also, of those persons 
who settle the details of a matter, whether 
secretaries, or committees of the Council, 
should be clearly attested either by their 
signatures, or by a memorandum, showing 
what part of the business had been entrusted 
to them. 

As to the kind of men to be especially 
chosen or rejected, it would be trifling to lay 
down any minute rules. You often require 
a diversity of natures, in order that the vari- 
ous modes of acting congenial to different 
minds and tempers should have an oppor- 
tunity of being canvassed. 

When a man's faults are those which come 
to the surface in social life, they must be 
noted as certain hinderances to his usefulness 
as a member of any of these bodies. A man 
may be proud or selfish, and yet a good coun- 
cillor ; he may be secretly ill-tempered, and 
yet a reasonable man in his converse with the 
world, capable of bearing opposition, and an 



108 OF COUNCILS 

excellent coadjutor : but if he is vain, or fond 
of disputes, or dictatorial, you know that his 
efficiency in a Council must to a certain extent 
be counteracted. 

Those men are the grace and strength of 
Councils who are of that healthful nature 
which is content to take defeat with good- 
humour, and of that practical turn of mind 
which makes them set heartily to work upon 
plans and propositions which have been 
originated in opposition to their judgment; 
who are not anxious to shift responsibility 
upon others ; and who do not allude to their 
former objections with triumph, when those 
objections come to be borne out by the result. 
In acting with such persons you are at your 
ease. You counsel sincerely and boldly, and 
not with a timorous regard to your own part 
in the matter. 

The men who have method, and, as it were, 
a judicial intellect, are most valuable coun- 
cillors. Without some such in a Council, a 
great deal of cleverness goes for nothing : 
as there is nobody to see what has been 
stated and answered, to what their delibera- 
tions tend, and what progress has been made. 
Such persons can gather the sense of a mixed 
assembly, and suggest some line of action 



AND COMMISSIONS. 109 

which may honestly meet the different views 
of the various members. They will bring 
back the subject matter when it has all but 
floated away, while the others have been 
looking for sea-weed, or throwing stones at 
one another on the shore. 



PARTY-SPIRIT. 

PARTY-SPIRIT gives a pretext for the 
exercise of such scorn and malice, as 
could not be tolerated, if they did not claim 
to have their origin in fervent wishes for the 
public welfare. It consumes in idle contests 
that energy which the state has need of. By 
the perpetual interchange of hard names it 
tends to make a people suspicious and un- 
charitable; or it inclines them to think lightly 
of the kind of offences which they hear so 
often charged against their most eminent 
public men; or it 'gives them a habit of 
using epithets and affecting sensations of 
moral indignation which bear no proportion 
to the thing itself, or to their own real feelings 
about the thing; of taking the names of Truth 
and Virtue in vain/ 

Under the influence of party-spirit, a nation 
sometimes acts towards its dependencies, and 
in its foreign relations, not with the whole 
force of the country, but with a portion of it 
only, bearing some reference to the excess of 
strength in the ruling party. 



PARTY-SPIRIT. 1 1 1 

Party-spirit makes people abjure indepen- 
dent thinking. It can leave nothing alone. 
It must uplift a hand in every man's quarrel, 
as a knight-errant of old, but with small sense 
of chivalry. It forces its odious friendship 
or its unprovoked hostility where neither 
is fitting. Even the wisest require to be 
constantly on their guard against it ; or its 
insidious prejudices, like dirt and insects on 
the glasses of a telescope, will blur the view, 
and make them see strange monsters where 
there are none. 

Party-spirit incites people to attack with 
rashness, and to defend without sincerity. 
Violent partisans are apt to treat a political 
opponent in such a manner, when they argue 
with him, as to make the question quite 
personal, as if he had been present, as it 
were, and a chief agent in all the crimes 
which they attribute to his party. Nor does 
the accused hesitate to take the matter upon 
himself, and, in fancied self-defence, to justify 
things which otherwise he would not hesitate, 
for one moment, to condemn. 

These evils must not be allowed to take 
shelter under the unfounded supposition that 
party dealings are different from any thing 



Ill PARTY-SPIRIT. 

else in the world, and that they are to be 
governed by much looser laws than those 
which regulate any other human affairs. It 
is a very dangerous thing to acknowledge two 
sorts of truth, two kinds of charity. 

Is there no harm in never looking further 
than the worst motive that can possibly be 
imagined for the actions of our political ad- 
versaries ? Are we to consider the opposite 
party as so many Samaritans; and is there 
nothing that we have ever heard or read, 
which should induce us to abate our Jewish 
antipathy to these brethren of ours, who do 
not worship at our temple? This is an 
illustration from which political bigots cannot 
escape. Even their own pretensions of being 
always in the right will only bring the in- 
stance more home to them. The Jews were 
right about the matter in dispute between 
them and the Samaritans. ' Salvation is with 
the Jews/ But this is never held out to us 
as any justification of their behaviour. 

To hear some men talk, one would suppose 
that political distinctions were natural dis- 
tinctions; and that they depended upon a 
man's personal qualities. These people seem 
to think that all the good are ranged in a 



PAKTY-SPIBIT. 1 13 

row on one side; and all the bad on the 
other. Now the utmost that can reasonably 
be alleged is, that there exists in most men 
a predisposition to one or other of the two 
great parties which, are to be found in every 
free country: but this cannot be depended 
upon as the cause which determines men in 
general to attach themselves to a party. 

As it is, some range themselves on one 
side, and some on the other, just as they used 
to do in their school games, and with about 
as much reflection. A large number of per- 
sons, in all ranks, hold hereditary opinions. 
There are thousands who make their con- 
victions on all political subjects subservient 
to their feelings as members of a class, and 
to what they believe to be the interests of 
that class. Then there are those who think 
whatever the little mob in which they live 
pleases to think : and this is the most com- 
fortable way of thinking. Direct self-interest 
decides some men. The merest accidents 
determine others. For instance, how much 
of a man's opinions through life will depend 
upon any strong-minded or earnest person 
that he may have lived with at a time when 
he was uninformed himself and malleable. 
Eemember too, that it requires but a slight 

I 



114 PARTY-SPIRIT. 

bias to send a man into a party ; for let him 
agree with it only in a few points, and he will 
be set down as belonging to it. Then, per- 
haps, he is called upon to act in some way 
or other politically, and a very little deter- 
mines a man whose thoughts upon the subject 
altogether have been few and vague. Thus 
a political character is impressed upon him 
without his having had much to do in the 
matter; but, afterwards, many things will 
probably occur to deepen that impression, 
and to make him a decided partisan. 

A true analysis of the composition of 
parties would afford a good lesson of political 
tolerance. We should learn from it what a 
mixed thing a party is; that there is no 
single law that will explain its cohesion ; and 
still less is there any good ground for insist- 
ing that the distinctions of party have their 
origin in moral worth or turpitude. 

It is of importance that we should train 
ourselves to make the fitting allowance for 
the political prejudices of others. 

Pascal asks, c Whence comes it to pass that 
we have so much patience with those who 
are maimed in body, and so little with those 
who are defective in mind?' And he says, 
' It is because the cripple acknowledges that 



PARTY-SPIRIT. 115 

we have the use of our legs; whereas the 
fool obstinately maintains that we are the 
persons who halt in understanding. With- 
out this difference in the case, neither object 
would move our resentment, but both our 
compassion/ We might try to overlook this 
difference, and find it an aid to charity to 
consider that men's prejudices are the same 
kind of things as their personal defects. 
Whether a man is labouring under some 
degree of physical deafness ; or under some 
strong prejudice, which being ever by his side, 
is always sure of the first hearing, and pro- 
duces a sort of numbness to anything else : it 
comes nearly to the same thing as regards 
the weight which he is likely to attach to 
any of our arguments, when adverse to his 
prejudice. In both cases the cause is decided 
without our being fully heard. 

But at the same time that we have recourse 
to such views as the above, to moderate our 
impatience of other people's prejudices, we 
should keep a vigilant watch on our own. 
We often forget that we are partisans our- 
selves, and that we are contending with par- 
tisans. We first give ourselves credit for a 
judicial impartiality in all that concerns public 
affairs; and then call upon our opponents 



II 6 PARTY-SPIRIT. 

actually to be as impartial as we assert our- 
selves to be. But few of us, I suspect, have 
any right to take this high ground. Our 
passions master us : and we know them to be 
our enemies. Our prejudices imprison us : 
and like madmen, we take our jailors for a 
guard of honour. 

I do not mean to suggest that truth and 
right are always to be found in middle courses ; 
or that there is anything particularly philo- 
sophic in concluding that 'both parties are 
in the wrong/ and 'that there is a great 
deal to be said on both sides of the question/ 
— phrases which may belong to indolence as 
well as to charity and candour. Let a man 
have a hearty strong opinion, and strive by 
all fair means to bring it into action — if it is, 
in truth, an opinion, and not a thing inhaled 
like some infectious disorder. 

Many persons persuade themselves that 
the life and well-being of a state are some- 
thing like their own fleeting health and brief 
prosperity. And hence they see portentous 
things in every subject of political dispute. 
Such fancies add much to the intolerance of 
party-spirit. But the state will bear much 



PAKTY-SPIRIT. TI7 

killing. It has outlived many generations 
of political prophets — and it may survive the 
present ones. 

Divisions in a state are a necessary con- 
sequence of freedom ; and the practical ques- 
tion is not to dispense with party, but to 
make the most good of it. The contest must 
exist : but it may have something of genero- 
sity in it. And how is this to be ? Not by 
the better kind of men abstaining from any 
attention to politics, or shunning party con- 
nexions altogether. Staying away from a 
danger which in many instances it is their 
duty to face, would be but a poor way of 
keeping themselves safe. It would be a 
doubtful policy to encourage political indif- 
ference as a cure for the evils of party-spirit, 
even if it were a certain cure ; but we cannot 
take this for granted, especially when we 
observe that the vices of party are not always 
to be seen most in those who have the most 
earnest political feelings. Indeed, the attach- 
ment to a party may be, and often is, an 
affection of the most generous kind : and it 
must, I think, be allowed, that even with 
men who do not discern the true end of party, 
nor its limits, party-spirit is often a rude kind 
of patriotism. 



Il8 PARTY-SPIRIT. 

The question, then, is how to regulate 
party-spirit. Like all other affections, its 
tendency is to overspread the whole character. 
One who has nothing in his soul to resist it, 
or much that assimilates with its worst in- 
fluences, is carried away by it to evil. But 
a good man will show the earnestness of his 
attachment to his party by his endeavour to 
elevate its character ; and in the utmost heat 
of party contests, he will try to maintain a 
love of truth, and a regard for the charities 
of life. 



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